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if 


M 


THE 


QUARTERLY    JOURNAL 


OF  THS 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 


VOLUME    V. 


BOSTON: 
AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION, 

21    BI^OMFIELD   STREET. 
1858. 


r-r-  •  •      ■:  "  •   ■••• 


jt. 


.r.\:^H 


oahbbidoe: 
ifbtoalf  and  company,  printers  to  the  university. 


CONTENTS. 


No.  I. 

PAGB 

Historical  and  Artistic  Illastratioiis  of  the  Trinity       ...  1 

The  Brahmas 12 

Limitations  of  Evil 18 

The  Cambridge  Divinity  School 27 

Paris.    By  Rev.  William  Moontford 44 

Fund  for  Liberal  Christianity 62 

A  Well-grounded  Hope,  and  not  Infallible  Certainty,  the  Object 

aimed  at  by  Divine  Revelation.    By  Archbishop  Whately  69 

Our  Fifth  Volume 75 

Se«niid  Quarterly  Heport  of  Home  Missionary        ...  79 

V/iliiam  Parsons  Lunt 89 

Antioch  College 92 

Extracts  from  Letters 110 

Meetings  of  the  Executive  Committee 142 

Notices  of  Books 144 

Record  of  Events  and  General  Intelligence      .        .        .        .  150 

Acknowledgments 153 


No.  11. 

The  Unitarian  Denomination.    By  Rev.  C.  H.  Brighain     .        .157 

Politics  of  the  New  Testament 183 

Lyons.    By  Rev.  William  Mountford 199 

Revision  of  the  English  Bible 224 

The  Unitarians  of  Transylvania           .         .        .        .        .        ,  234 

Professors  Baur  and  Lechler 242 

Fourth  Half-Yearly  Report  to  the  Calcutta  Society     .        .        .  244 

Extracts  from  Letters 260 

Home  Missionary  Report 268 

Meetings  of  the  Executive  Committee      .    '    .        .        .        .  276 

Notices  of  Books 279 

Record  of  Events  and  (General  Intelligence      ....  284 

Acknowledgments 287 


CCXTENTS. 


No.  III. 

PAGE 

d  to  our  Friends 289 

in  Salvation 292 

an  Ignorance 294 

Meade's  Virginia 302 

land.    By  Rev.  William  Mountford         .        .        .        .323 

1  Leisure 348 

Dostles'  Creed 353 

js  of  the  Executive  Committee 354 

:s  from  Letters 358 

Quarterly  Report  of  the  Home  Missionary       .  .  387 

•ies 391 

of  Books 395 

of  Events  and  General  Intelligence       ....  402 

vledgments 405 


No.  IV. 

rsian  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life  :  its  Connection  with  Ju- 

1  and  Christianity    ' 409 

from  Abroad.    By  Rev.  William  Mountford        .        .  437 
lirty-third  Anniversary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Asso- 

►n 457 

Grangooly 548 

ugustus  R.  Pope 550 

5s  of  the  Executive  Committee         ......  558 

of  Books 563 

of  Events  and  General  Intelligence 566 

vledgments 569 


OFFICERS 


ICAN  [TNIT^ilUAN  ASSOCIATION 


EracnrivE  committke. 

I.  StU'IIEN    FAtROAKKe,         > 

.  HcNDT  A.  3fiLEs,  D.Dt  Sxtrttars* 
Mis  W-  C-LJinx,  Esq,  Tnaiurer. 
..  Albert  Peab<*.*o. 
.  FiiKbRdtc  H.  HKbun,  D.I>. 

WiLLUK   E.    Ai.BEIl. 
V  U.  RpnBiis,  Esq. 
fiN  P.  'Mfjupri.B,  Esq. 
.  Hewbv  W.  Bm.»^iia,  D.D. 

OijoiwB  W.  Hoa-MKii,  DJD. 

Cakkcau  pMjFiiEr,  D.D. 

"WiLuiAH  G.  Eliot.  D.D. 


■•The  Oinco  of  the  Association  i«  at  91  Brom- 

I '  Sireet,  Boslon.     Tlir   Summary  will  naual^ 

I  Tf  i.'icry  dttj-  from  13  to  2  ti'cloclt. 

■■■linrioii-  for  Prt-rvtii'T-i  may  be  made  io  tlio 

HIP  placp.      Thi-  oflif:fi 

ill  tbe  RtHXiu  of  Uuj 

[  inoin-y  nmy  Ik'  made 

,■,  j-ifPiVL-iJ  fur  iho  Q,«or- 

.t»iiii.iil, — jifii.i:  i>iil^  line  Joliai  p4!r  umuut. 

'^iiiiiiu'ij  Uniuiriaii  bookd  fuc  sole.     Fu-  pirioeil 

■  mml  page  of  cover. 


THE 


QUARTERLY    JOURNAL. 


Vol..  V.  BOSTON,  OCTOBER  1,  1857.  No.  1. 


HISTORICAL  AND  ARTISTIC  ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF  THE  TRINITY. 

The  time  cannot  be  for  distant  for  a  re-discussion  of  tlie 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  This  is  invited  by 
modifications  of  opinion  on  the  part  both  of  the  defenders 
and  opposers  of  this  doctrine.  The  Trinitarianisni  that  is 
most  advocated  at  the  present  day  falls  far  short  of  that 
Tritheism  which  was  formerly  preached ;  while  Unitarian- 
ism  dwells  more  than  it  did  a  few  years  ago  upon  those 
higher  relations  of  the  Son  of  God  which  made  him  in  one 
sense  one  with  the  Father.  As  we  recede,  also,  farther  and 
&rther  from  the  times  of  a  sharp  and  embittered  controversy, 
we  are  able  to  approach  a  new  survey  of  this  subject  with 
better  temper,  and  candid  minds  on  both  sides  may  attain  to 
a  greater  harmony  of  view. 

Meanwhile  there  is  one  phenomenon  which  will  arrest  the 
attention  of  the  Christian  scholar  of  every  name,  —  the  wide- 
spread prevalence  of  Trinitarianism  throughout  Christciulom, 
and  in  all  past  ages.     How  is  this  fact  to  be  explained  ? 

VOL.  V.  NO.  T.  1 


2  HISTOBICAL   AND  ABTISTIG 

Was  this  a  lawless  aberration  of  the  human  mind  ?  Was  this 
dogma  a  sheU,  protecting  ideas  essentially  true  ?  Have  the 
forms  in  which  it  has  been  set  forth  been  only  the  technical 
language  of  scholastics,  while  the  real  belief  of  the  body  of 
the  Church  has  always  conformed  to  primitive  Unitarian  sim- 
pHcity  ?  Or  was  the  force  of  superstition  so  great  in  the 
pre-existing  heathen  mind  as  to  occasion,  unavoidably,  and 
irresistibly,  an  erroneous  deflection  in  the  stream  of  Christian 
thought,  which  has  lasted  many  centuries,  and  from  which 
the  ever-flowing  current  is  now  but  just  recovering  ? 

This  last  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Beard,  whose  book  *  has 
eiven  a  title  to  this  article.  He  finds  two  means  of  explor- 
ing liij  i',\  i  —  iii  i>ry  and  Art,  By  their  aid  he  shows 
when  t-io  uoctriijc  of  the  Trinity  came' into  the  Church, 
points  ou:  I  ho  .- access  ive  stages  of  the  growth  of  the  dogma, 
tells  us  when  it  reached  its  culminating  point,  and  enumer- 
ates the  proofs  of  its  gradual  disappearance  from  the  page 
of  Christian  history. 

Perhaps  the  most  valuable  part  of  this  work  is  the  first  fifty 
pages,  which  bring  together  the  proofs  that  some  notions  of 
a  triune  Divinity  had  universally  taken  possession  of  the 
heathen  mind  prior  to  the  birth  of  Christ.  A  brief  survey  of 
the  literature  of  the  Greeks,  Bomans,  Persians,  Babylonians, 
and  Egyptians  develops  the  evidences  of  this  truth  with 
an  extent  of  learning,  and  with  a  clearness  and  force,  which 
we  have  not  found  in  any  other  book.  We  are  not  ignorant 
that  this  fact  has  sometimes  been  used  by  Trinitarians  as  a 
proof  of  a  providential  preparation  of  the  human  mind  to 
receive  the  alleged  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  —  a  use 

*  Historical  and  Artistic  Illustrations  of  the  Trinity ;  showing  the 
Rise,  Progress,  and  Decline  of  the  Doctrine.  With  Elucidatory  En- 
gravings. By  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Beard,  D.  D.  1  vol.  Svo.  200  pages. 
For  sale  by  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  THE  TRINITY.  8 

which  might  have  some  plausibility  if  the  Grospel  gave 
the  least  countenance  "  to  Grods  many  and  Lords  many," 
and  did  not  give  all  its  strength  to  reaffirm  the  ancient  He- 
brew monotheism.  It  is  a  species  of  bold  legerdemain  which, 
after  one  has  read  of  the  Grecian  ^  three-shaped  goddess 
Diana";  of  the  Indian  Brahma,  Yishnoo,  and  Siva;  of  the 
Persian  Mithras,  Mithra,  and  Ormuzd ;  of  the  Babylonian 
Tauthe,  Apason,  and  Aoymis;  of  the  Egyptian  Amoun, 
Mout,  and  Chons,  —  can  hold  these  up  as  more  inspired  sug- 
gestions of  the  essential  nature  of  the  Godhead  than  fell 
from  the  lips  of  him  who  said,  ^^  Hear,  O  Israel !  the  Lord  thy 
God  is  one  Grod."  Of  the  successive  steps  by  which  these 
pagan  conceptions  of  Grod  came  into  the  Church,  infected 
the  thought  of  the  Church,  and  shaped  the  terminology  of  the 
Church,  Dr.  Beard  gives  fuU  and  interesting  information. 
He  says  in  his  Preface :  "  The  worth  of  this  argument  the 
writer  must  leave  others  to  determine.  To  himself  it  ap- 
pears decisive.  The  Trinity  sprang  up  in  a  hesCthen  soiL 
It  was  imported  into  the  Christian  Church  by  men  who  had 
been  heathen  philosophers.  It  led  in  process  of  time  to 
very  great  aberrations  from  the  simple  and  strict  monothe- 
ism of  the  primitive  Church.  If,  as  this  volume  professes 
to  show,  these  are  facts,  then  the  Trinity  was  Christian 
neither  in  its  origin  nor  in  its  effects.  Such  is  the  writer's  con- 
viction ;  a  conviction  carefully  formed ;  firmly  yet  humbly 
beheved ;  and  now  set  forth,  with  some  array  of  evidence, 
under  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility. " 

But  History  is  not  the  only  method  of  exploring  the  past. 
In  the  case  before  us  we  have  another  aid.  It  is  Art.  This 
brings  us  to  far  the  most  curious  part  of  this  book.  The 
prevailing  ideas  of  the  personality  of  God  have  been  ex- 
pressed in  every  age  by  rude  etchings,  in  the  Catacombs,  on 
monuments,  on  illuminated  parchments,  and  on  the  windows 


4  HISTORICAL   AND   ABTISTIC 

of  churches.  Dr.  Beard  gives  us  copies  of  a  large  number 
of  these  representations,  some  of  them  dating  as  far  back  as 
the  third  century.  And  what  interesting  and  instructive 
remains  of  past  ages  they  are !  We  see  the  process  by 
which  the  idea  of  God  was  materialized,  and  the  glory  of 
the  Creator  given  to  others,  just  as  clearly  as  we  can  read 
the  age  of  the  world  by  strata  of  earth ;  and  the  idea  of  all 
forgery  and  mistake  is  equally  precluded. 

Now  that  our  author  has  gone  into  this  subject  so  fully, 
and  has  presented  us  so  many  curious  details,  we  only  won- 
der that  he  has  been  the  first  to  reap  this  rich  field.  To 
give  an  icica  of  the  light  which  Art  here  sheds  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Trinity,  we  shall  now  quote  a  few  of  the  con- 
cluding pages  of  this  book,  referring  our  readers  to  the  book 
itself,  where  they  will  find  the  engravings  by  which  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  are  illustrated. 

"It  is  a  very  significant  fact,  and  in  complete  agreement  with 
the  general  doctrine  of  this  essay,  that  no  trace  of  a  pictorial  rep- 
resentation of  the  Trinity  is  found  in  the  purer  ages  of  the  Church. 
There  does  not  exist  a  complete  group  of  the  Trinity,  in  the  most 
ancient  remains  of  Christian  art.  You  may  frequently  see  Jesus, 
but  alone,  or  accompanied  by  the  dove,  representing  the  Holy 
Spirit  You  also  behold  a  hand,  intended  to  be  that  of  the  Father, 
which  holds  a  crown  over  the  head  of  his  Son,  but  in  the  absence 
of  his  Spirit.  Crosses  and  lambs,  which  symbolize  the  Son ; 
hands,  which  reveal  the  Father ;  doves,  which  set  forth  the  Holy 
Spirit,  are  often  seen,  painted  in  fresco,  or  sculptured  in  marble. 
But  these  symbols  are  almost  always  insulated,  rarely  united  in 
the  same  place,  or  on  the  same  monument ;  never  grouped  together. 
Not  before  the  fourth  century  do  we  find  an  artistic  representation 
of  the  Trinity,  when  one  appeared,  executed  in  mosaic  work,  in  the 
church  of  St.  Felix,  built  at  Nola,  by  its  bishop,  Paulinus.  These 
lines  were  made  by  Paulinus  to  explain  the  images :  — 

Pleno  coroscat  Trinitas  mysterio. 
Stat  Christus  agno,  vox  Patris  ccelo  tonat, 
Et  per  columbam  spiritos  sanctus  flnit. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OP  THB   TBINITT.  0 

Whence  we  learn,  that  a  lamh  represented  Jesns,  a  voice  thunder- 
ing in  the  heavens  the  Father,  and  a  dove  the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  in 
v^hat  way  the  voice  was  made  an  object  of  sight,  we  are  not  in- 
formed. Similar  emblems  of  the  Trinity  are  found  in  the  ensuing 
centuries.  In  a  less  ancient  type  of  the  Trinity,  the  Father  ap- 
pears as  an  old  man ;  the  Son  is  represented  by  a  cross,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  by  a  cock.  With  the  lapse  of  time,  Christian  art  be- 
came more  bold  and  florid.  Two  chief  sources  furnished  images, 
—  the  human  form,  and  geometrical  figures.  Anthropomorphism, 
which  would  have  revolted  the  primitive  Christians,  and  which 
could  not  have  failed  to  call  up  the  idea  of  paganism  in  their 
minds,  found  little  resistance  in  the  darker  periods  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  Eternal  Father,  of  whom  men  had  ventured  to  exhibit 
only  a  hand,  or,  at  most,  the  bust,  was  now  seen  in  a  full-length 
figure.  Frequently,  however,  he  took  not  a  special  form,  but  bor- 
rowed that  of  his  Son,  whence  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  distin- 
guish the  one  from  the  other.  The  Son  himself  continued  to 
appear  under  the  figure  of  a  tall  man,  with  a  beauty  and  gravity 
of  expression,  whose  age  was  from  thirty  to  five-and-thirty  years. 
The  Holy  Spirit  quitted  his  veil  of  a  dove,  in  order  to  take  the 
human  form.  As  the  *  true  faith '  declared  that  the  three  were 
equal,  so  the  artist  preserved  a  similarity,  an  equality  between  the 
three  persons.  St.  Dunstan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  died 
in  908,  has  lefl  a  manuscript  in  which  the  three  are  figured  under 
the  human  form.  The  Father  and  the  Son,  attired  as  kings,  with 
crowns  on  their  heads,  and  sceptres  in  their  hands,  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  about  thirty-four  years  old.  The  Spirit  is 
younger,  not  exceeding  eighteen  years.  In  this  way  his  proces- 
sion from  the  Father  and  Son  was  denoted.  This  difierence  soon 
disappears,  and  the  three  become  exactly  alike.  Such  is  the  case 
in  a  figure  of  the  Trinity  taken  from  a  manuscript  of  the  twelfth 
century,  in  which  the  three  are  identical. 

"  We  have  already  referred  to  the  triangle  as  an  emblem  of  the 
Trinity ;  the  circle  also  was  employed  for  the  same  end,  as  appears 
by  this  representation  of  the  Trinity,  copied  from  a  French  minia- 
ture of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  which  the  doctrine  is  set  forth 
under  the  form  of  three  intersecting  circles. 

1* 


>  HISTORICAL   AND   ABTISTIO 

**  In  the  next  illustration  Anthropomorphism  unites  itself  with 
jeometry  in  order  to  symbolize  the  Trinity.  The  cut,  showing  a 
;riangle  inscribed  in  a  circle,  which  comprises  the  form  of  a  vener- 
aible  human  figure,  is  introduced  to  depict  the  unity  in  trinity,  and 
^inity  in  unity,  of  Athanasianism.  The  original  is  a  German  en- 
D^raving  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

'•*'  The  application  of  mathematical  figures,  and  other  visible  em- 
blems, in  order  to  indicate  the  supposed  perfections  of  deity,  is 
ilustrated  in  the  cut,  in  which  Yishnoo,  with  three  arms  on  each 
side,  is  depicted  as  so  inscribed  in  two  squares,  as  to  occupy  at  the 
same  time  four  triangles. 

*'  Aided  by  Roman,  idolatry,  which  represented  the  personifica- 
tion of  time  as  having  two  faces  (Janus  bifrons).  Christian  artists 
set  forth  the  Trinity  as  one  body  with  three  countenances,  making 
a  Christian  Janus,  who  is  celebrating  the  new  year  with  good 
sheer.  The  cut  is  from  a  French  miniature  of  the  fourteenth 
Bentury. 

'*  Our  next  illustration  shows  the  three  divine  heads  attached  to 
)ne  body,  trinity  in  unity.  It  is  taken  from  an  Italian  engraving 
9f  the  fifteenth  century. 

**  The  fullest  representation  of  the  Trinity  is  that  which  ensues, 
n  which  three  similar  and  united  heads  are  seen  on  one  body,  a 
;ype  which  began  to  appear  in  the  ninth,  but  was  not  brought  to 
jerfection  till  the  sixteenth  century,  which. is  the  date  of  our 
figure. 

**  Here  the  representation  is  complete.  Besides  the  triple  vis- 
ige,  and  the  complex  triangle,  a  motto  declares  the  doctrine,  which, 
f  read  from  the  comers  towards  the  centre,  runs  thus :  *  The 
Father  is  God,  the  Son  is  God,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  God ' ;  but  if 
re^d  from  comer  to  corner,  states :  *  The  Father  is  not  the  Son, 
;he  Father  is  not  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  the  Son.' 

"  In  some  instances  the  artists,  with  especial  theological  aim, 
studied  to  exhibit  either  the  equality  of  the  persons,  or  the  dis- 
inctions  which  were  supposed  to  exist  between  them.  If  equality 
s  intended  to  be  set  forth,  the  persons  are  depicted  in  every  respect 
;he  same.  If  diversity,  then  the  Spirit  is  made  younger,  the 
Father  older,  and  the  Son  of  a  medium  age ;  or  the  Spirit  has  a 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  THB  TBINITY.  7 

book,  to  denote  intelligence ;  the  Son  a  cross,  to  denote  benevo- 
lent sufl^ring  ;  the  Father  a  globe,  to  denote  dominion.  The  im- 
perial, or  papal  crown,  distinguishes  the  Father ;  the  crown  of 
thorns,  the  Son ;  the  absence  of  a  crown,  the  Holy  Spirit.  In 
the  engraving,  (from  an  -old  French  miniature  of  the  sixteenth 
century,)  unity  and  diversity  seem  to  be  equally  well  attained. 

''  Sometimes  action  is  attempted  to  be  described  in  images  of  the 
Trinity,  as  in  this,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  which  the  Father 
is  beheld  communicating  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  Son. 

''  The  contemplation  of  the  human  mind  furnished  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  Trinity.  Its  power  represented  the  Father,  its  goodness 
the  Son,  its  wisdom  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  the  mind,  may  be  bad 
as  well  as  good.  Nay,  in  consequence  of  the  fall  of  man,  the 
mind  was  more  inclined  to  evil  than  to  good.  Hence  it  became 
the  emblem  of  wickedness,  and  of  wickedness  in  the  highest  de- 
gree. As,  however,  when  regarded  as  good,  it  appeared  under 
three  aspects,  so  its  evil  presented  itself  most  fully  when  depicted 
in  a  triple  form.  If  the  fulness  of  good  required  for  its  complete 
exhibition  a  triune  figure,  equally  was  such  a  figure  necessary  in 
order  to  set  before  men's  eyes  the  thorough  heinousness  of  sin.. 
Thus  the  Trinity,  with  the  necessary  modifications  in  each  case, 
became  the  symbol  of  absolute  evil  as  well  as  of  absolute  good. 
And  as  trinal  figures  were  the  established  and  recognized  means 
for  exhibiting  God  •  in  all  his  perfections,  so  they  came  into  use, 
also,  for  setting  forth  the  great  principle  of  evil.  The  following 
exhibits  Satan  invested  with  trinitarian  attributes,  which,  in  order 
to  depict  the  magnitude  and  terror  of  sin,  surpass  in  number  and 
intensity  those  which  are  commonly  ascribed  to  the  Almighty. 
He  has  three  heads  on  the  lower  parts  of  the  body,  three  or  four 
on  his  chest,  and  three  on  his  shoulders,  the  last  being  surmounted 
by  three  long  spiny  horns.  He  bears  in  his  left  hand  a  sceptre, 
crowned  with  three  monstrous  heads.  As  the  sceptre  points  out 
the  prince  of  the  powers  of  darkness,  so  the  fetters  by  which  he  is 
fastened  to  his  throne  indicate  that  limits  are  set  to  his  power,  by 
one  mightier  than  he.  This  cut  is  copied  from  a  French  miniature 
of  the  fifteenth  century. 


8  HISTORICAL   AND   ARTISTIC 

'<  In  this  case,  also,  the  corrupters  of  Christianity  had  pagan 
luthority.  Geryon,  fabled  to  have  been  king  of  the  southwestern 
mrt  of  Spain,  and,  on  account  of  a  triple  army,  three  sons,  and 
hree  islands,  termed  by  the  poets  three-fold^  three-headed,  and  three- 
wdied,  who,  after  his  death,  was  changed  into  Cerberus,  the  dog 
jf^ith  three  heads  that  watched  at  the  gates  of  the  Infernal  Regions, 
a  described  by  Ovid  (Heroides,  Ep.  ix.  91  -  94)  as  a  threefold 
prodigy,  yet  one  in  three : 

*  Prodigiumque  triplex,  armenti  dives  Iberi, 
Geryones  :  quamvis  in  tribus  units  erat.^ 

'*  How  near  Christendom  was  to  having  a  quaternity,  may  be 
learnt  from  the  cut,  in  which  the  Virgin  is  represented  as  a  con- 
stituent member  of  the  Godhead.  This  curious  relic  is  copied 
from  an  engraving  given  in  Dibdin's  *  Northern  Tour,'  from  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  Trinity,  on  stamed  glass,  in  the  church  of  St. 
Trinity,  at  York  (Vol.  I.  pp.  203,  204). 

**  The  imminence  of  the  danger  is  shown  by  the  Old  Chapter 
Seal  of  the  Durham  Cathedral,  in  which  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Grhost,  together  with  the  host  of  heaven,  are  described  as  combin- 
ing to  pay  the  highest  honors  to  the  Virgin. 

"  From  Burnet,*  it  appears  that  the  Virgin  was  made  a  part  of 
;he  Deity,  and  that  religious  worship  was  offered  to  images  of  the 
Trinity,  even  so  late  as  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  Refor- 
nation.  His  words  are :  *  There  were  in  the  Churches  some  im- 
iges  of  so  strange  a  nature,  that  it  could  not  be  denied  that  they 
iiad  been  abused.  Such  was  the  image  of  the  blessed  Trinity, 
ivhich  was  to  be  censed  on  the  day  of  the  Innocents,  by  him  that 
nras  made  the  Bishop  of  the  Children.  This  shows  that  it  was 
used  on  other  days,  in  which  it  is  like  it  was  censed  by  the  Bishop 
ivhen  he  was  present.  How  this  image  was  made,  can  only  be 
fathered  from  the  prints  that  were  of  it  at  that  time  ;  in  which  the 
Father  is  represented  sitting  on  the  one  hand  as  «Ln  old  man  with  a 
triple  crown  and  rays  about  him,  the  Son  on  the  other  hand  as  a 
young  man  with  a  crown  and  rays,  and  the  blessed  Virgin  be- 
tween them,  and  the  emblem  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  Dove  spread 

*  History  of  the  Reformation,  Part  ii.  B.  1. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  THE  TBINITY.  9 

over  her  head.  So  it  is  represented  in  a  fair  book  of  the  Hours 
according  to  the  use  of  Sarum,  printed  Anno  1596.  The  impiety 
of  this  did  raise  horror  in  most  men's  minds,  virhen  that  inconceiv- 
able mystery  was  so  grossly  expressed.  Besides,  the  taking  of 
the  Virgin  into  it  v^as  done  in  pursuance  of  what  had  been  said 
by  some  blasphemous  Friars,  of  her  being  assumed  into  the  Trini- 
ty. In  another  edition  of  these  it  is  represented  by  three  faces 
formed  in  one  Head.' 

''  The  reader  is  not  to  imagine  that  these  illustrations  of  the 
Trinity  relate  exclusively  to  past  ages.  One  effect  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  this  country  was  to  destroy  the  painted  and  sculptured 
appeals  which  had  been  made  to  the  senses,  on  behalf  of  what 
was  thought  Christian  doctrines;  but  though  the  Reformation 
greatly  diminished,  it  did  not  wholly  remove,  these  sensible  images 
and  symbols ;  and  in  Catholic  countries,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
greater  part  of  Christendom,  they  abound  at  the  present  day.  We 
mention,  as  an  exemplification,  the  most  recent  instance  that  we 
have  met  with  in  our  reading.  '  At  Mdhocs  (in  Hungary)  I  came 
upon  a  company  of  people,  doing  homage  before  a  group  of  im- 
ages, designed  to  represent  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
mounted  on  three  gilded  Corinthian  columns.  At  the  next  comer 
of  the  street  was  an  equally  sacred  and  grotesque  statue  of  the 
Virgin,  clad  in  a  gaudy  gilt  petticoat  and  winter  shawl,  with  a 
baby  in  her  arms,  all  overspread  with  a  huge  umbrella.'  * 

'^  As  might  be  expected,  and  as  is  still  the  case  in  the  popular 
theology,  the  Son,  from  the  position  which  orthodoxy  makes  him 
hold,  is  frequently  found  to  displace  the  Father  in  the  monuments 
of  Christian  art.  A  crowd  of  these,  which  represent  the  creation, 
and  other  scenes  of  the  Bible,  in  which  the  Father  is  made  by  the 
Scriptures  the  sole  actor,  exhibit,  not  the  Father,  but  the  Son,  who 
is  recognized,  if  not  by  his  name,  graven  or  painted,  yet  by  attri- 
butes which  are  peculiar  to  him.  In  the  ensuing,  from  a  fresco  of 
the  ninth  century,  Jesus,  with  his  name,  appears  creating  Adam, 
who  is  known  by  the  inscription  seen  under  the  tree,  which  de- 
scribes him  as  '  the  first  made.' 

*  Travels  by  the  Rev.  J.  OUn,  D.  D.,  Vol.  II.  p.  475. 


10  HISTOBICAL  AND   ABTISTIC 

Indeed,  the  Father  seems  to  have  heen  almost  lost  from  view. 
Panselinos  undertook  to  teach  painters  how,  among  other  things, 
they  should  represent  Moses  before  the  burning  bush.  These  are 
his  instructions  :  —  *  Moses  unfastening  his  sandal ;  around  him 
flocks.  Before  Moses  is  the  burning  bush,  on  the  middle  and 
summit  of  which  shines  the  Virgin  and  her  child.  Near  Mary, 
an  angel  looks  towards  Moses.  On  another  side  of  the  bush, 
Moses  again  standing  erect,  with  one  hand  extended,  and  the  other 
bearing  a  staff.'  Thus,  not  only  was  Jesus  substituted  in  place  of 
the  Father,  but  Mary,  also,  was  introduced  into  a  subject  which 
referred  to  a  period  fourteen  hundred  years  before  her  birth. 

*'  Among  the  Greeks,  at  the  bottom  of  the  great  cupolas  that 
cover  the  centre  of  the  churches,  there  appears  a  gigantic  figure 
of  the  Almighty,  or  (6  iravTOKpar&p)  the  Pantocrator,  as  they  des- 
ignate him,  painted  on  a  ground  of  gold  in  fresco.  This  being 
blesses  believers  from  the  height  of  this  heaven  of  art,  with  his 
right  hand,  while  in  his  left  he  holds  a  book.  Who  this  being  is 
intended  to  represent,  remains  without  a  doubt,  for,  to  say  nothing 
of  a  certain  appearance,  too  young  for  *  the  Ancient  of  days,'  let- 
ters above  his  shoulders  set  forth  that  it  is  Jesus  Christ  (IC  XC, 
lrj(rovs  Xpiaros)  ;  and  on  the  page  of  the  book  which  he  holds  in 
his  hand,  you  read  his  own  words,  —  *  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.' 
We  subjoin  the  figure  of  Jesus  Christ,  represented  as  the  Al- 
mighty, from  a  fresco  painting  at  Salamis,  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Other  instances,  drawn  from  much  earlier  periods  of  Chris- 
tian art,  might  be  given. 

"  To  the  same  effect  honors  are  shown  to  the  Son  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  Father.  In  position,  the  left,  the  lower,  and  the  cir- 
cumference are  less  honorable  than  the  right,  the  top,  and  the 
centre.  The  places  of  honor  are  often  conceded  to  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  the  ornamental  parts  of  the  na- 
tional church  of  France,  Notre-Dame  de  Paris.  On  this  point 
Didron  (1689)  remarks:  *  Notre-Dame  de  Paris  shows  little  re- 
spect to  the  Eternal  Father ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  has  a  thou- 
sand marks  of  tenderness  for  Jesus  Christ :  his  are  all  the  honors, 
his  the  triumph.'  The  same  writer  adds :  '  When  God  the  Father 
is  brought  forward,  he  is  frequently  presented  in  eccentric,  gross. 


ILLUSTRATIONS    OF  THE  TRINITY.  11 

odious,  and  even  cruel  light.  Thus,  on  a  capital  of  Notre-Dame 
du  Pont,  at  Clermont,  you  see  him  inflicting  blows  with  his  fist  on 
the  guilty  Adam,  whose  beard  an  angel  is  seizing  and  tearing 
away.  In  a  Latip  manuscript  belonging  to  the  Royal  Library,  God 
himself  is  represented  as  driving  Adam  and  Eve  out  of  Paradise, 
by  shooting  arrows  at  them,  just  as  Apollo  in  the  Iliad  pursues  the 
Greeks.  In  a  Psalter,  in  the  same  library,  of  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century,  God  is  many  times  described  as  holding  in  his 
hands  a  bow,  arrows,  a  spear,  and  a  sword.  Art  made  Jehovah 
formidable,  in  order  to  draw  aside  the  mystic  souls  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  and  direct  them  entirely  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  God  of 
love.'  The  author  sums  up  the  results  of  his  researches  on  this 
point  in  these  words :  *  Either  God  the  Father  is  entirely  absent 
on  the  figured  monuments ;  or,  if  he  is  present,  you  see  only  an  in- 
considerable portion.  As  to  the  portion  itself,  it  is  not  always 
placed  honorably ;  or  it  performs  an  unbecoming  part.  The  Son, 
on  the  contrary,  is  always  present,  even  when  not  expected  ;  he 
is  always  represented  in  a  worthy  manner,  always  in  an  honor- 
able place.' " 

•  We  must  not  close- our  notice  of  this  book  without  adding 
that  it  contains  elaborate  criticisms  upon  all  the  leading  Trin- 
itarian proof  texts.  Nor  is  Dr.  Beard  a  mere  critic  or  his- 
torian. The  following  suggestive  passage  will  show  that  he 
is  also  a  philosopher  and  theologian :  — 

"  Great  and  lamentable,  too,  as  w6re  the  corruptions  of  Atha- 
nasianism,  they  had  a  more  logical  basis,  and  were  arrived  at  by 
a  more  logical  process  than  could  be  employed  in  behalf  of  Ari- 
anism.  The  Scriptural  doctrine  of  the  Logos  is  compatible  with 
the  humanity  of  Christ ;  his  pre-existence  is  not.  The  doctrine 
of  the  God-man  is  legitimate,  though  an  extravagant  deduction 
from  the  materials  supplied  by  Scripture  ;  but  whatever  he  was, 
Jesus  Christ  was  certainly  not  an  angel,  nor  the  chief  of  angels, 
for,  beyond  a  question,  he  was  a  man.  Trinitarianism  is  only 
the  divine  element  carried  to  an  excess.  True  that  excess  in- 
volves absurdity.  The  argument  for  the  Trinity  is  in  its  last 
result  a  theological   reductio  ad  absurdum ;  but  the   absurdity 


12  THE    BBAHMAS. 

comes  not  out  till  the  last;  whereas  Arianism  implies  the  ab- 
surdity at  the  very  beginning,  for  in  no  way  can  it  be  made  out 
that  a  pre-existent  spirit  is  a  man.  A  pre-existent  personality  sat- 
isfies, indeed,  neither  of  the  conditions  required  in  the  Scriptural 
account  of  Jesus,  who  there  appears  as  a  man  who  had  the  Spirit 
of  God  without  measure." 


THE  BRAHMAS. 

Evidences  of  interest  in  higher  and  more  generous 
^iews  of  religion  are  not  confined  to  the  Christian  world. 
From  the  lands  of  Eastern  Paganism,  cheering  signs  reach 
lis  of  a  new  coming  of  Christ.  The  religious  aspect  of 
[ndia  is  peculiarly  interesting.  After  remaining  dormant 
ibr  ages,  it  has  caught  the  quickening  breath  of  a  new  civil- 
zation.  The  old  systems  of  idolatry  no  longer  command 
mplicit  belief.  With  the  influx  of  new  ideas  from  the 
Western  world  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the  tena- 
cious hold  of  superstition  has  been  broken,  and  the  scepti- 
;ism  premonitory  of  its  downfall  has  already  appeared. 
The  spirit  of  inquiry  has  been  awakened,  and  a  new  impulse 
jommunicated  to  the  native  mind. 

With  regard  to  religion,  this  change  in  the  mental  habits 
)f  the  people  is  manifested  in  two  ways.  The  younger  por- 
ion  of  the  community,  whose  minds  have  not  been  deeply 
mbued  with  the  national  faith,  perceiving  its  statements  to 
)e  at  variance  with  the  facts  of  modem  science,  in  which 
hey  have  been  initiated,  abandon  it  altogether,  and  boldly 
Lvow  their  disbelief  in  every  form  of  faith.  Rejoicing  in 
heir  newly  found  freedom,  they  will  be  slow  to  appreciate 


V 


THE    BBAHMAS.  13 

the  higher  liberty  wherewith  Christ  maketh  his  disciples 
fiee.  Bat  the  more  moderate  of  the  progressive  part  of  the 
people,  reluctant  to  relinquish  their  time-honored  religion, 
yet  perceiving  that  it  must  either  be  reformed  or  abandoned, 
endeavor  to  effect  such  changes  in  it  as  will  adapt  it  to  the 
growing  wants  of  the  mind. 

The  earliest  to  perceive  the  necessity  of  this  change  was 
the  celebrated  Rammohun  Boy.     Long  before  he  became  a 
Christian,  it  had  been  a  favorite  project  with  him  to  reform 
the  EQndoo  religion.     And  for  several  years  he  endeavored 
to  disentangle  what  was  true  and  divine  in  it  from  the  accre- 
tions of  error  which  it  had  gathered  in  the  lapse  of  ages. 
He  made  it  a  main  object  of  his  life  to  establish  in  his  na- 
tive country  a  sect,  the  keystone  of  whose  faith  should  be 
the  pure  doctrine,  taught  alike,  he  contended,  by  Manu  and 
by  Moses,  by  Jesus  Christ  and  by  Mohammed,  —  the  doc- 
trine of  the  unity  of  the  Deity.     He  found  means  to  enHst 
in  this  enterprise  some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  respecta- 
ble of  his  countrymen ;  and  in  order  to  give  a  public  ex- 
pression of  their  opinions,  and  to  promote  the  reforms  which 
they  had  commenced,  they  established  in  Calcutta,  in  the 
year  1828,  a  regularly  organized  society,  which  they  denom- 
inated the  Brahm  Sumaj,  or  an  assemblage  of  the  wor- 
shippers of  Brahm,  the  Supreme   God.      Their  numbers 
were  not  large,  but  their  intelligence  and  respectability,  and 
the  novelty  of  their  sentiments,  excited  considerable  atten- 
tion.   In  the  year  following  their  organization,  they  erected 
a  chapel  "  for  the  worship  and  adoration  of  the  eternal,  un- 
searchable, and  immutable  Being,  who  is  the  author  and 
preserver  of  the  universe."     Not  long  subsequent  to  the 
establishment  of  this  institution,  Rammohun  Roy,  partly  in 
nilfihnent  of  a  purpose  to  travel  in  Europe  which  he  had 
long  cherished,  and  partly  for  the  transaction  of  official  busi- 
VOL.  V.  NO.  I.  2 


14  THE  BRAHMA  S. 

ness,  left  India,  and,  after  a  sojourn  of  two  or  three  years  in 
England  and  in  France,  died  in  the  former  country  in  1838. 
After  his  departure,  the  memhers  of  the  Brahm  Sumaj  lost 
their  interest  in  the  objects  for  which  it  was  organized.  It 
gradually  declined,  and  for  several  years  nothing  more  was 
heard  of  it. 

But  the  causes  which  led  to  its  original  institution  contin- 
ued to  operate  with  redoubled  force,  and  in  1839  it  was 
revived,  or  rather  a  new  society  was  formed  under  a  new 
name,  the  Tattwabadhini  Sabha,  embracing  its  main  objects, 
and  based  upon  a  more  perfect  organization.  Their  avowed 
object  was  the  propagation  of  their  opinions.  For  this  pur- 
pose they  formed  branch  societies,  and  established  schools 
in  several  large  cities.  They  collected  a  library  of  relig- 
ious works  in  Sanscrit,  Bengali,  and  English.  They  pro- 
cured a  printing-press,  and  issued  a  journal  defending  the 
tenets  of  their  body,  and  urging  the  Hindoos  to  accept  them. 
They  have  also  published  many  religious  works,  in  Sanscrit, 
Bengali,  and  English.  Though  retaining  several  of  the 
main  features  of  Hinduism,  it  has  been  their  object  to  re- 
fine upon  it,  and  to  form  as  consistent  a  system  as  possible. 
But  they  have  been  embarrassed  by  their  inability  to  deter- 
mine what  to  reject  and  what  to  retain.  In  1850,  they 
issued  a  work  containing  a  declaration  of  their  principles, 
together  with  the  formulary  of  faith  subscribed  by  the  mem- 
bers of  their  society.  In  this  they  say  :  "  The  doctrines  of 
the  Brahmas,  or  spiritual  worshippers  of  God,  are  founded 
upon  a  broader  and  more  unexceptionable  basis  than  the 
Scriptures  of  any  single  religious  denomination  on  the  earth. 
The  volume  of  nature  is  open  to  all,  and  that  volume  con- 
tains a  revelation  clearly  teaching,  in  strong  and  legible 
characters,  the  great  truths  of  religion  and  morality,  giving 
as  much  knowledge  of  our  state  after  death  as  is  necessary 


THB  BRAHMAS.  15 

for  tlie  attaininent  of  fxitnre  blessedness ;  yet  adapted  to  the 
present  state  of  our  mental  faculties.  Now,  as  the  Hindu 
religion  contains  notions  of  God  and  of  human  duty  which 
coincide  with  that  revelation,  we  have  availed  ourselves  of 
extracts  from  works  which  are  the  great  depositories  of  the 
national  faith,  and  which  have  the  advantage  of  national 
association  on  their  side,  for  disseminating  the  principles  of 
pure  religion  among  our  countrymen." 

In  some  respects  they  appear  to  have  departed  from  the 
principles  of  their  founder.  In  others,  they  manifest  a  less 
liberal  and  enlightened  spirit. 

1.  The  institution  of  caste  is  still  retained  by  them,  though 
not  made  prominent  in  the  published  expositions  of  their 
principles.  In  their  intercourse  among  themselves  and  with 
others,  they  carefully  conform  to  its  requirements ;  and  they 
have  zealously  opposed  those  who  have  favored  the  abolition 
of  the  restrictions  to  social  intercourse  it  imposes.  It  is  not 
strange  that  they  should  cling  to  an  institution  incorporated 
with  their  entire  social  and  religious  system,  and  identified 
with  all  their  habits  of  thought.  Its  complete  removal,  ear- 
nestly hoped  for  in  some  quarters  as  the  result  of  the  recent 
insurrections  in  India,  would  be  equivalent  to  the  subversion 
of  their  existing  state  of  society,  which  is  the  outgrowth  of 
it,  and  to  the  introduction  of  new  and  Christianized  thought. 
The  errors  of  this  artificial  separation  of  men  into  inflexible 
orders  cannot  at  once  be  entirely  obliterated  from  the  Indian 
mind.  Meanwhile,  the  disabilities  imposed  will  constitute, 
as  long  as  they  last,  an  almost  invincible  barrier  to  the  rapid 
extension  of  Christianity. 

2.  The  Brahmas  retain  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigra- 
tion of  souls  in  their  system  of  reformed  theology.  Those 
who  are  not  prepared  at  death  for  eternal  felicity,  must  be 
subjected  to  successive  births  on  earth,  until  they  are  fitted 


16  THE  BBAHMAS. 

for  the  enjoyments  of  the  heavenly  state.  Concerning  this 
subject,  they  say :  '<  The  man  who  is  ignorant  and  impure 
is  not  admitted  to  the  presence  of  Brahm  at  death,  but 
returns  to  the  world.  The  wise  man,  having  gained  that 
dignity,  is  bom  no  more.  The  man  who  in  this  world  is  able 
to  know  God,  accomplishes  the  object  of  his  birth ;  having 
perceived  Grod,  he  is  removed  entirely  from  this  world,  and 
dies  no  more." 

3.  They  believe  in  gods  of  an  inferior  order,  correspond- 
mg  in  some  degree  to  the  Christian  idea  of  angels,  but  ren- 
der them  no  worship.  The  great  advance  which  they  have 
made  upon  their  countrymen  is  their  rejection  of  idolatry. 
The  Brahmas  are  entirely  distinct  from  the  Brahmins,  who 
are,  without  exception,  polytheists.  They  are  solemnly 
pledged  to  maintain  the  absolute  unity  and  spirituality  of 
the  Deity. 

Their  religious  principles,  as  published  in  the  authorized 
exponent  of  their  system,  are  the  following :  — 

1.  Before  the  production  of  this  world,  there  existed  only 
the  Supreme  Brahm  ;  nothing  else  existed  whatsoever  ;  He 
created  all  things. 

2.  He  is  wisdom,  eternity,  joy,  and  goodness,  personified ; 
the  everlasting  ruler  of  all ;  all-wise ;  without  form ;  one 
)nly,  without  a  second ;   most  wonderful  in  power. 

3.  From  his  worship  alone  is  happiness  produced,  both 
iiere  and  hereafter. 

4.  That  worship  consists  in  loving  him,  and  performing 
ictions  which  give  him  pleasure. 

Their  simple  form  of  initiation  consists  in  subscribing  to 
he  following  declaration  of  their  principles. 

"1.  This  day,  the day  of  the  month  of ,  in  the 

^ear  ^  I  adopt  the  religion  of  the  worshippers   of 

Brahm. 


THB  BRAHMAS.  17 

<<  2.  I  will  live  devoted  to  the  worship  of  that  Supreme 
Brahm,  who  is  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  and  the  Destroyer 
of  the  universe ;  the  cause  of  deliverance ;  all-wise ;  all-per- 
vading; fiill  of  joy;  the  good;  and  without  form.  I  will 
worship  him  with  love,  and  by  doing  what  will  give  him 
pleasure. 

"3.  I  will  worship  no  created  thing  as  the  Supreme 
Brahm,  the  Creator  of  all. 

"  4.  Except  on  days  of  sickness  or  calamity,  I  will  every 
day,  when  my  mind  shall  be  at  rest,  in  faith  and  love  fix  my 
thoughts  on  the  Supreme. 
"  5.  I  will  live  earnest  in  the  practice  of  good  deeds. 
"  6.  I  will  endeavor  to  live  free  from  evil  deeds. 
"  7.  If,  overcome  by  temptation,  I  perchance  do  anything 
evil,  I  will  surely  desire  to  be  freed  from  it,  and  be  careful 
for  the  future. 

"  8.  Every  year,  and  in  all  worldly  prosperity,  I  will  offer 
gifts  to  the  Brahm  Sumaj. 

"  O  God,  grant  unto  me  strength,  that  I  may  entirely  ob- 
serve this  excellent  religion." 

Since  the  time  of  Rammohun  Roy,  there  have  arisen 
twenty-four  societies  of  this  order,  ten  or  twelve  of  which 
still  survive.  The  average  number  of  members  has  some- 
what exceeded  five  hundred  yearly.  These  societies  hold  a 
regular  weekly  meeting.  Two  or  three  hundred  persons 
usually  assemble.  No  discussion  is  allowed  in  the  place  of 
worship ;  but  their  meetings  are  open  to  all,  whether  mem- 
bers of  their  society  or  not.  Their  service  consists  of  read- 
ing monotheistic  sentences  selected  from  the  Veds.  A  few 
of  these  are  chanted  by  a  portion  of  the  congregation. 
Once  in  about  two  months  a  sermon  or  lecture  is  delivered 
by  their  leader,  or  by  some  person  of  his  selection.  The 
service  is  concluded  with  a  hymn,  sung  by  a  hired  singer 

2* 


18  LOaTATIONS   OF  BVIL. 

in  the  peculiar  Oriental  style,  accompanied  by  Bengali  in- 
struments of  music 

The  existence  of  this  body  of  monotheists  is  significant 
of  the  change  which  has  been  wrought  in  the  mind  of  India 
during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  "Whatever  influence 
we  may  think  them  likely  to  exert,  one  thing,  at  least,  is 
certain :  the  bonds  of  the  old  superstition  have  been  burst ; 
the  incubus  of  thirty  centuries  has  been  liiled  from  the  pant- 
ing bosom  of  that  mighty  country.  The  reformation  in  the- 
ology which  Rammohun  Roy  inaugurated,  and  of  which  the 
Brahmas  have  been  the  advanced  pioneers  since  his  time, 
has  been  opposed  with  the  malignant  hatred  of  a  supersti- 
tion which  perceived  itself  to  be  slipping  from  its  ancient 
foothold.  But,  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  it  has  steadily  ad- 
vanced, and,  with  the  diffusion  of  liberal  ideas,  the  leading 
minds  have  become  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  reform. 
And  though  they  may  but  feebly  apprehend  the  wants  of 
their  age,  and  their  resources  be  inadequate  to  meet  them, 
yet  they  are  building  wiser  than  they  know,  and  we  hail 
their  efforts  as  auspicious  omens  of  that  brighter  day,  when 
the  nations  of  the  world  shall  become  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord,  and  of  his  Christ. 

A. 


LIMITATIONS  OF  EVIL. 

Laws  and  restrictions,  checks  and  balances,  are  imposed 
on  all  created  things.  Opposite  tendencies,  counteracting 
each  other,  and  rendering  all  things  safe  from  ruinous  ex- 
tremes, everywhere  exist.     We  stand  by  the  angry  ocean. 


LIMITATIONS   OF  EVIL.  19 

The  waves  beat  and  break  against  the  shore,  rising  higher 
and  higher  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  and  threaten- 
ing to  overflow  and  inundate  the  land.  But  we  look  again, 
and  all  cause  for  fear  is  removed.  The  waves  recede.  The 
swelling  tide  rolls  back,  leaving  rocks,  and  sands,  and  islands 
bare,  and  threatening  now  to  abandon  its  old  domain.  Thus 
the  ocean  has  its  bounds,  which  it  cannot  pass.  God  has  said 
to  it :  '^  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  but  no  further ;  and  here 
shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed."  These  are  not  the  effects 
of  chance,  but  such  as  result  from  the  operation  of  immu- 
table principles  and  eternal  laws.  And  so  it  is  through  uni- 
versal nature.  So  it  is  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world,  as 
well  as  in  that  of  matter. 

Opposite  forces,  instead  of  tending  to  destroy,  serve  to 
bind  the  universe  together,  and  to  preserve  order  and  har- 
mony throughout  the  whole.  Opposite  forces  guide  the 
planets  in  their  orbits,  and  direct  and  control  the  motions  of 
every  sun  and  system.  Sometimes  one  of  these  forces  be- 
comes predominant,  and  sometimes  the  other.  Hence  the 
elliptical  paths  of  the  planets,  the  acceleration  and  the  retar- 
dation, by  turns,  of  the  planetary  motions,  and  the  extremes 
of  light  and  heat,  and  of  darkness  and  cold,  to  which  they 
are  alternately  subjected.  If  but  one  of  these  forces  existed, 
the  tendency  of  all  things  would  be  to  inevitable  destruction. 
Take  away,  for  instance,  the  force  of  projection,  and  all  the 
planets  belonging  to  the  system  would  fall  at  once  upon  the 
sun,  and  all  the  systems  in  the  universe  would  rush  together, 
producing  confusion  more  intricate  than  the  primeval  chaos. 
Take  away  that  of  attraction,  and  all  would  be  inmiediately 
dispersed,  wandering  for  ever  through  the  blackness  and 
emptiness  of  space.  Both,  acting  together,  may  produce 
inequalities,  but  they  render  all  things  secure.  They  may 
cause  the  orbs  of  heaven  sometimes  to  approach  each  other, 


20  LIMITATIONS  OF  EYIL. 

and  sometimes  to  recede ;  but  they  also  fiz<  the  bounds  be- 
yond which  they  cannot  go,  and  within  which  they  cannot 
stop.  "  Thus  far,  and  no  farther,"  is  the  fiat  of  the  all-con- 
trolling Mind,  and  that  fiat  must  be  obeyed. 

Disturbing  influences  arise  from  these  causes ;  planet  act- 
ing upon  planet,  and  system  upon  system,  and  changing  the 
forms  of  their  orbits,  and  the  times  of  their  revolution. 
Some  of  these  effects  are  very  observable,  and  may  be  dis- 
cerned at  short  intervals.  Some  of  them  are  slight,  and 
can  only  be  detected  after  the  lapse  of  centuries.  It  was 
from  data  of  this  nature,  that  Leverrier,  sitting  down  in  his 
study,  predicted  the  existence  of  a  planet  beyond  the  orbit 
of  Uranus,  calculated  its  distance  and  dimensions,  and  gave 
directions  to  observers  in  different  places  where  they  must 
point  their  telescopes  in  order  to  find  it.  The  prediction 
was  wonderfully  verified. 

By  a  series  of  observations,  it  had  been  found,  that,  in 
consequence  of  these  disturbing  influences,  the  orbits  of  sev- 
eral of  the  planets  were  slowly  diminishing.  It  therefore 
became  evident,  that,  if  this  process  of  diminution  were  to 
go  on  without  interruption,  they  must  eventually  become 
stationary  at  the  centre.  Some  astronomers  set  themselves 
at  work  to  calculate  the  length  of  time  that  must  elapse  be- 
fore the  system  would  thus  be  destroyed.  Other  astrono- 
mers, however,  wiser  than  they,  succeeded  in  demonstrating 
the  fact,  that  the  same  causes  which  were  operating  at  one 
time  to  contract  the  orbits  of  the  planets,  would  operate  at 
another  time  to  enlarge  them ;  that  these  changes  would 
always  occur  at  regular  intervals,  and  that,  after  a  sufficient 
lapse  of  time,  everything  would  return  to  its  original  form 
and  place.  Thus  all  fear  of  such  a  catastrophe  was  for  ever 
removed.  And  here,  again,  we  find  that  the  same  law  was 
imposed  upon  other  worlds  as  upon  our  own.     God  said  to 


LIBIITATIONS  OF  EVIL.  21 

them,  also,  even  as  he  said  to  the  waves  of  the  deep,  ^  Thus 
far,  and  no  farther." 

There  are  analogies  and  correspondences  between  the  out- 
ward, visible,  and  the  inward,  spiritual  worlds ;  and  the  same 
law  of  opposite  tendencies  and  forces,  of  changes,  and  checks, 
and  compensations,  extends  to  both.  There  are  disturb- 
ances and  irregularities  belonging  to  one  as  well  as  to  the 
other.  There  are  influences  which  operate  upon  the  soul  to 
draw  it  aside  from  the  path  of  virtue,  and  to  hasten  or  retard 
its  progress,  causing  it  sometimes  to  approach,  and  some- 
times to  recede  from  the  great  central  Sun  about  which  it 
revolves,  "  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  there  is  no  varia- 
bleness nor  shadow  of  turning."  But  these  also  have  their 
bounds,  which  they  cannot  pass.  Here,  also,  we  find  that 
universal  law,  "  Thus  far,  and  no  farther " ;  and  thus  the 
moral  universe  is  rendered  secure. 

The  two  forces  which  act  in  this  manner  upon  the  soul, 
affecting  the  condition  of  individuals,  society,  and  the  world, 
are  represented  in  the  Scriptures  under  the  names  of  "  the 
flesh "  and  "  the  spirit,"  "  the  law  in  the  members,  and  the 
law  of  the  mind."  And  it  is  written :  "  The  flesh  lusteth 
against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against  the  flesh ;  and  these 
are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,  so  that  ye  cannot  do  the 
things  that  ye  would."  It  is  also  written :  "  To  will  is  present 
with  me,  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good,  I  find  not. 

I  find,  then,  a  law,  that  when  I  would  do  good,  evil 

is  present  with  me.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inward  man ;  but  I  see  another  law  in  my  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members." 

By  the  terms  "  flesh  "  and  "  the  law  in  the  members,"  as 
thus  employed  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  are  obviously  intended 
the  lower  animal  instincts  and  propensities.     They  are  such 


22  LIMITATIONS  OF  EVIL. 

as  belong  to  man,  in  common  with  the  whole  brute  creation ; 
as,  the  natural  appetites,  anger,  pride,  jealousy,  combative- 
ness,  and  things  of  a  like  nature.  These  all  tend  to  impel 
the  soul  in  one  direction ;  to  bring  it  under  the  control  of 
sense;  to  concentrate  all  things  in  self;  to  draw  it  down- 
ward, and  bind  it  to  the  earth.  By  the  term  ^^  spirit"  is  meant 
everything  pertaining  to  the  higher  spiritual  nature,  as  rea- 
son, conscience,  the  love  of  the  true  and  the  good,  the  desire 
for  the  holy  and  pure ;  all  things,  in  short,  which  serve  to 
elevate  the  nature  of  man  above  that  of  the  brute.  The 
tendency  of  these  things  is  to  lift  the  soul  heavenward,  and 
to  bear  it  onward  in  the  path  of  everlasting  progress. 

These  two  opposite  tendencies  are  both  necessary,  in 
order  to  enable  man  to  accomplish  the  purposes  of  his  crea- 
tion, and  to  fulfil  the  destiny  which  awaits  him.  It  seems 
to  be  most  evident,  that  God  would  never  have  created  man 
with  a  constitution  unsuited  to  the  ends  for  which  it  was 
bestowed,  and  to  the  circumstances  of  his  condition.  He 
would  never  have  implanted  within  the  breast  of  man  in- 
stincts and  propensities  which  are  sinful  in  themselves,  or 
which  it  would  be  wrong  in  all  cases,  and  in  any  degree,  to 
indulge.  He  would  not  have  conferred  upon  us  either  nat- 
ural or  moral  endowments  intended  for  no  use,  or  for  no 
other  purpose  than  to  do  us  harm.  Thus  we  might  reason 
from  the  nature  and  character  of  God,  and  the  argument 
would  seem  entirely  conclusive.  But  let  us  look  at  the  mat- 
ter in  a  different  light.  Let  us  take  a  view  of  the  facts 
themselves. 

What  is  the  true  state  of  the  case  in  reality  ?  Are  there 
no  important  purposes  to  be  answered  by  these  animal  in- 
stincts and  passions?  Is  there  a  single  one  of  them  all, 
which  was  not  intended  for  some  good  end  ?  All  of  them 
are  to  be  found  in  the  lower  orders  of  the  animal  creation,  — 


LIMITATIONS   OF  EYIL.  23 

in  natures  that  are  incapable  of  moral  action.  Can  they  be 
regarded  as  sinful  in  them  ?  No  one  can  well  deny  that,  in 
all  such  cases,  at  least,  they  were  bestowed  for  some  wise 
and  benevolent  purpose.  But  man  is  an  animal,  no  less 
than  a  spiritual  being,  and  therefore  requires  the  same  nat- 
ural endowments.  Are  not  the  animal  appetites  essential, 
not  only  to  the  enjoyment,  but  to  the  very  preservation,  of 
animal  life  ?  Were  not  the  passions  intended  for  anything 
good  ?  Is  it  not  possible,  in  accordance  with  the  precept  of 
the  Apostle,  to  "  be  angry  and  sin  not "  ?  May  there  not  be 
occasions  when  anger  is  not  merely  excusable,  but  perfectly 
justifiable  ?  If  not,  how  is  the  fact  that  Jesus,  upon  one 
occasion,  is  said  to  have  looked  about  upon  his  unbelieving 
countrymen  ^  with  anger,"  to  be  reconciled  with  the  perfect 
sinlessness  of  his  character  ?  And  so  we  may  inquire  with 
reference  to  all  other  animal  instincts.  It  is  not  the  posses- 
sion of  them,  and  it  is  not  the  legitimate  action  of  them,  but 
rather  the  unrestrained  indulgence  of  them,  that  constitutes 
sin. 

What  would  the  efifect  be,  if  no  such  tendencies  existed, 
and  no  such  influences  were  exerted  ?  We  might  be  fitted 
for  a  purely  spiritual  existence ;  but  we  should  be  extremely 
ill  fitted  to  live  in  this  gross,  material  world.  And  what 
would  be  the  consequence,  if  none  but  these  animal  instincts 
belonged  to  us  ?  We  might  be  as  well  adapted,  perhaps,  to 
this  mere  earthly,  sensuous  life,  as  other  animals  are ;  but 
not  to  a  higher  and  better.  In  neither  case  should  we  be 
fitted  for  the  stations  we  occupy  ;  nor  to  remain  just  such 
beings  as  we  are.  Our  animal  nature  or  our  spiritual  na- 
ture would  become  extinct.  Both  tendencies  operating  to- 
gether, although  in  antagonistic  relations,  combine  their 
effects,  and  qualify  us  for  the  position  which  we  occupy,  and 
its  intimate  connection  with  both  worlds. 


24  LIMITATIONS  OF  EVIL. 

But  now  we  observe  the  disorderly  effects  produced  by  the 
influence  of  earthly  upon  the  spiritual ;  —  the  disturbing  pow- 
er of  animal  propensities  over  the  higher  aspirations  of  the 
soul ;  —  "  the  law  in  the  members  warring  against  the  law  of 
the  mind."  In  the  material  world,  we  call  these  temporary 
and  partial  derangements,  produced  by  the  action  of  planet 
upon  planet,  as  one  or  another  is  deflected  from  its  course, 
perturbations,  or  periodic  and  secular  variations.  In  the 
moral  world,  we  call  the  corresponding  disturbances  and 
irregularities  by  the  more  common  and  intelligible  names, 
error  and  sin. 

Moral  evils,  like  the  physical  disarrangements  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  have  also  their  periodicity.  They 
rise,  and  culminate,  and  decline.  They  disappear  for  a  time, 
as  if  they  had  finally  passed  away;  then  revive,  and  all 
come  round  again  in  the  same  order  as  before.  At  this  day 
many  strange  opinions  are  afloat,  and  many  erroneous  doc- 
trines are  inculcated.  But  a  very  small  proportion  of  these, 
however,  are  really  new,  in  whatever  manner  they  may  be 
regarded,  either  by  their  advocates  or  opposers.  They  are 
merely  old  errors  reappearing, — old  speculations  starting  up 
afresh.  The  modem  Millerism,  in  all  its  essential  features, 
dates  back  almost  or  quite  to  the  origin  of  Christianity,  and 
has  often,  within  that  period,  been  embraced  as  a  new  dis- 
covery, and  inculcated  as  a  "new  doctrine."  The  same 
may  be  said  of  Deism,  Pantheism,  Atheism,  and  many  of 
the  peculiar  tenets  received  among  Christians,  and  regarded 
as  things  of  modern  invention.  So,  likewise,  vices,  and  all 
the  grosser  forms  of  wickedness,  whether  considered  with 
reference  to  individuals  or  communities,  usually  go  on  in- 
creasing, till  they  reach  their  climax,  and  then  they  begin 
to  diminish  and  subside.  Like  the  disturbances  in  the  plan- 
3tary  systems,  they  ultimately  correct  themselves.     Evil 


LIMITATIONS   OP   EVIL.  25 

principles  and  evil  practices  must  necessarily  result  in  evil 
consequences.  Otherwise,  there  would  be  no  adequate  rea- 
son for  regarding  them  as  evil.  •  These  consequences  are  the 
penalties,  not  vindictive,  but  disciplinary  and  corrective, 
which  Grod  has  affixed  to  the  violation  of  his  laws.  When 
men  have  suffered  from  them  enough,,  they  will  learn  to 
avoid  them,  by^  avoiding  the  causes  which  produce  them. 
The  law  of  the  spirit  prevails  for  a  time  over  the  law  in  the 
members,  and  holds  these  evil  propensities  in  check.  But 
by  and  by  the  temptations  again  return,  and  the  animal 
nature  yields ;  the  law  of  the  flesh  obtains  the  ascendency, 
and  sin  once  more  reigns.  Thus  the  orbit  becomes  complete. 
The  same  results  are  witnessed  in  communities  and  na- 
tions, as  in  the  case  of  individuals.  They  begin  with  pro- 
clivities to  social  wrongs  and  vices.  They  continue  on, 
corrupting  themselves  more  and  more,  until  the  evil  has 
reached  the  highest  point  of  endurance ;  then  the  opposing 
influences  obtain  control,  and  gradually  work  a  change  for 
the  better.  "  Old  things  pass  away,"  and  "  all  things  be- 
come new."  The  old  civilization  ends,  and  a  new  civiliza- 
tion begins.  Thus  Egypt  and  Greece,  where  learning  was 
first  nurtured,  and  where  the  light  of  science  first  dawned, 
relapsed  once  more  into  a  state  of  barbarism,  from  which 
they  are  now  but  just  emerging.  Thus  our  Christian  civil- 
ization, which  at  first  shone  out  with  so  great  a  degree  of 
brightness,  was  rendered  dim  and  obscure  in  the  night  of 
the  Dark  Ages,  and  is  now  regaining  its  original  lustr^. 
Sometimes  these  changes  are  effected  in  comparatively  brief 
intervals,  and  sometimes  they  require  the  lapse  of  many 
centuries  in  order  to  complete  the  circuit.  But  there  is  one 
thing  that  is  rendered  very  evident  from  facts  of  this  nature. 
Evil  in  the  moral  world,  as  well  as  in  the  material,  has  its 
limits,  which  it  cannot  transcend.     God  has  said  to  it,  as  he 

VOL.   V.  NO.   I.  3 


26  LIMITATIONS   OP  EVIL. 

said  to  the  surging  sea,  '^  Hitherto  shalt  thoa  come,  but  no 
further ;  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed." 

We  are  accustomed  to  lament  the  introduction  into  the 
world  of  what  we  denominate  evil ;  but  doubtless,  so  far  as  . 
depends  upon  the  plans  and  purposes  of  an  all-wise  Creator, 
things  are  best  as  they  are.  It  is  not  probable  that  man 
would  be  able  to  improve  them,  even  if  he  should  try. 
Those  disturbing  causes  which  astronomers  observe  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  effects  of  which  they  are  able  to  calculate 
and  predict  with  so  much  accuracy  and  precision,  do  not  in- 
terrupt in  the  least  the  general  order  and  harmony  of  the 
universe.  And  so  those  irregularities  and  perturbations  . 
which  occur  in  the  moral  world  do  not  interfere  in  the  least 
with  the  general  plan  of  the  Divine  government.  Evil  is 
not  evil,  except  in  its  pailial  relations,  but  is  doubtless  in- 
tended, in  a  way  which  we  may  not  be  able  to  comprehend, 
to  conduce  to  a  greater  ultimate  good.  The  centrifugal 
force,  even  when  the  strongest,  can  never  detach  a  single 
planet  from  the  sun.  However  far  it  may  wander  away,  it 
must  eventually  return.  The  force  of  attraction  will  inevi- 
tably bring  it  back.  And  so,  it  may  be  inferred,  the  sinful 
propensities  of  human  nature  may  not  be  able  to  detach  per-  . 
manently  a  single  soul  from  God.  However  erratic  may  be 
a  person's  course,  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  pass  be- 
yond the  attraction  of  the  Divine  love.  And  however  far 
he  may  be  borne  away  by  the  "  law  of  the  flesh,"  the  higher 
law  of  the  spirit  may  at  length  prevail,  and  hasten  his  return. 
God  is  the  source  and  the  centre  of  all  created  intelligences. 
All  souls  have  their  orbits  about  God. 

This  is  a  consoling  view  of  Divine  Providence,  and  of 
man's  nature  and  destiny.  "  Thou  art  my  hope  in  the  day 
of  evil,"  was  the  pious  ejaculation  of  the  prophet ;  and  happy 
are  they  who  can  adopt  it  as  their  own.    The  day  of  evil 


THB   OAMBBmaE  DIYINITT   SCHOOL.  27 

will  not  always  last.  This  hope  remains  for  all,  even  in 
life's  darkest  hours.  God  has  ordered  all  things  well,  and 
all  things  will  work  for  good  to  them  that  love  him.  This 
is  a  truth  which  will  afford  "strong  consolation"  amid  all 
earthly  vicissitudes.  ' 

"  All  natnre  is  bat  art  anknown  to  thee, 
All  chance,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see, 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood, 
All  partial  evil,  uniyersal  good." 

This  is  a  thought  that  is  well  fitted  to  afford  comfort  and 
support)  amid  all  the  strifes  and  convulsions,  the  sufferings 
and  wrongs,  which  mortals  upon  earth  are  compelled  to  wit- 
ness or  endure.  w. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL. 

The  recent  inauguration  of  two  new  Professors  is  a  sig- 
nal event  in  the  history  of  this  institution.  Although,  in 
consequence  of  causes  which  have  affected  all  theological 
seminaries  alike,  the  number  of  students  in  divinity  is  small, 
yet  this  does  not  abridge  the  ground  to  be  surveyed,  nor  di- 
minish the  labors  of  the  Professors.  They  have  the  same 
round  of  duty  with  thirty  pupils  that  they  would  have  with 
ninety.  In  estimating  their  labors,  we  are  to  look  to  the 
number  of  branches  of  instruction.  And  these  branches 
are  too  many  for  the  two  Professors  who  have  so  long  been 
connected  with  the  School.  Year  after  year  had  attention 
been  called  to  this  deficiency.  The  number  of  teachers  in 
other  institutions  was  fi'equently  alluded  to.  That  some  of 
tlie  most  important  departments  of  theological  study  should 


28  THE   OAMBRmGE  DIVINITY   SCHOOL. 

receive  only  such  chance  attention  as  might  be  voluntarily 
given  to  them  by  Professors  overworked  in  other  lines  of 
instruction,  was  a  reproach  to  the  institution  and  its  friends. 
Yet  so  often  had  all  this  been  said,  that  we  had  come  to  ex- 
pect its  annual  reiteration  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Thanks  to  the  wisdom  and  executive  ability  of  one  of 
our  most  honored  clergymen,  this  reproach  no  longer  exists. 
Last  winter  he  suggested  a  plan  of  temporary  professorships, 
to  be  supported  by  the  churches,  under  the  general  manage- 
ment of  the  "  Society  for  Promoting  Theological  Education  " ; 
and  it  is  through  his  energy  and  perseverance  that  this  plan 
has  now  been  carried  out.  Among  those  who  are  to  be  es- 
pecially congratulated,  we  may  name  the  two  elder  Profes- 
sors already  referred  to.  We  know  the  strong  desire  they 
have  expressed  for  the  consummation  of  this  plan,  and  the 
ready  aid  they  have  given  to  help  it  on.  Men  who  occupy 
the  high  positions  which  they  hold,  who  possess  either  the 
rare  critical  ability  of  the  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature, 
or  the  singular  fulness  of  information  and  genial  catholicity 
of  the  Professor  of  the  Pastoral  Care,  are  above  any  praise 
which  we  can  bestow  upon  them ;  but  it  is  no  more  than 
just  to  say,  that,  in  forming  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  their 
services,  the  infelicity  of  a  position  of  manifold  and  crowded 
labor  must  not  be  overlooked.  We  are  glad  that  they  may 
now  enjoy  a  partial  relief,  and  henceforth  give  themselves 
more  exclusively  to  their  appointed  tasks. 

The  Inaugural  Addresses  of  the  new  Professors  were  so 
instructive  and  interesting,  that  either  one  of  them  would 
have  made  the  14th  of  July  a  day  to  be  remembered 
by  the  alumni  of  .the  School.  We  regret  that  the  Ad- 
dress of"  the  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  has  not 
been  printed.  Urgent  solicitation  has  been  declined,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  introductory  to  a  course  of  lectures  to  the 


t- 


THB   CAMBB1D6E  DIYINITT   SCHOOL.  29 

successive  classes  in  the  institution.  The  general  subject  was 
the  operations  of  the  H0I7  Spirit,  as  seen  in  the  history  of 
the  Church.  The  very  terms  in  which  it  is  stated  will  sug- 
gest that  the  Professor  found  something  more  in  the  past 
than  a  record  of  error  and  folly.  Even  in  those  ecclesiastical 
dogmas  and  practices  which  we  would  most  unhesitatingly 
reject,  there  was  something  which  commended  them  to  faith 
and  respect,  something  in  them  which  God'a  Spirit  made  the 
vehicle  of  a  healing  grace.  It  is  the  true  office  of  the  stu- 
dent ifiot  to  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  past  with  contemptu- 
ous criticisms  and  scornful  incredulity,  but  with  tender  af- 
fection and  hopeful  reverence,  as  well  as  with  enlightened 
reason.  We  need  not  say  anything  of  the  stores  of  learn- 
ing from  which  abundant  illustrations  were  drawn,  nor  of 
the  rich  and  noble  diction  in  which  they  were  set  forth. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  reverence  and  faith  which 
is  to  preside  over  this  branch  of  instruction,  the  Address 
gave  the  highest  satisfaction. 

The  Address  of  the  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  has 
been  published.  We  do  not  know  how  extensively  it  has 
been  circulated ;  but  we  feel  certain  that  a  large  proportion 
of  our  readers  will  be  grateful  for  the  copious  extracts  which 
we  shall  give.  It  is  devoted  to  two  topics,  —  first,  a  his- 
tory of  the  connection  of  the  Divinity  School  with  the  Col- 
lege ;  and  secondly,  a  view  of  the  meaning  and  aim,  the  con- 
ditions and  limitations,  of  systematic  theology. 

Referring  to  the  origin  of  the  School,  forty  years  ago,  the 
aim  of  the  institution  is  set  forth  in  the  following  words :  — 

"  The  religious  opinions,  the  doctrinal  views,  the  creed,  of  many 
of  the  ministers  and  prominent  laymen  of  this  Commonwealth, 
had  been  undergoing  a  fundamental  process  of  change  from  that  of 
their  fathers.  Whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  whether  in  the  inter- 
ests of  truth  or  of  error,  the  change  had  reached  a  result,  and  had 

3* 


8(f  THE   CAMBRIDGE  DIVINITY   SCHOOL. 

made  a  manifestation  of  itself.  The  majority  of  the  members  of 
both  the  governing  Boards  of  the  College,  of  its  Faculty,  and 
of  its  most  influential  and  active  friends,  were  subjects  of  that 
change,  or  parties  to  it.  No  fraud,  no  underhand  or  politic 
schemes  or  management,  were  availed  of.  Open  as  the  day  was 
all  their  work.  They  did  indeed  refuse  to  yield  to  an  inquisitorial 
challenge  of  their  Christian  liberty,  or  to  subject  themselves  to  the 
dictation  of  those  who  were  at  best  but  their  peers  in  faith  and 
piety.  They  had  acceded,  unpledged,  —  except  as  Christian  men 
are  always  pledged  to  God  and  conscience,  —  they  had  acceded, 
unpledged,  to  certain  trusts.  Unpledged  they  administered  and 
transmitted  them.  They  did  not  turn  this  College  into  a  Unitarian 
institution.  It  is  not  a  Unitarian  institution  now.  Even  this 
School  was  not  founded  as  a  Unitarian  institution,  nor  devoted  to 
any  sectarian  object.  Not  a  dollar  of  its  funds,  not  a  statute  on  its 
books,  not  a  rule  for  its  conduct,  not  a  vote  of  its  Faculty,  recog- 
nizes or  patronizes  Unitarianism.  Its  Professors  were  expected  to 
be  familiarly  acquainted  with  the  distinguishing  views  of  all  the 
great  divisions  prevailing  among  those  who  profess  themselves 
Christians,  and  were  to  be  required  to  set  them  forth  as  thoroughly 
and  as  candidly  to  the  students  as  it  is  possible  for  men  to  do  who 
cherish  convictions  of  their  own.  When  the  School  was  first  pro- 
posed, the  present  sharp  lines  of  sectarian  alienation  had  not  been 
drawn  in  the  Congregational  body.  The  distinct  and  rigid  defini- 
tions of  creeds,  parties,  and  terms  of  communion  or  separation,  had 
not  been  established.  Ministers  whose  creeds  were  quite  at  vari- 
ance held  pleasant  social,  fraternal,  and  professional  intercourse. 
Much  of  the  private  correspondence  between  friendly  dissentients 
in  those  days  has  since  seen  the  light,  and  it  reveals  a  beautiful 
testimony  to  the  charity  which  can  unite  where  speculation  divides. 
I  will  try  to  convey — it  will  be  most  inadequately  —  the  noble, 
the  generous,  the  Christian  idea  and  object  of  the  founders  of  this 
School. 

"They  thought  that  amid  these  retired  and  bookish  scenes,  where 
antiquity  had  begun  to  gather  the  calm  and  soberness  of  true  wis- 
dom, its  old  lessons  of  conflict  might  be  studied  for  new  and  diviner 
uses.     Just  as  when  yonder  dome  was  reared  over  our  Observa- 


THE   CAUBBIDGB  DIVINITY  SCHOOL.  81 

tory  a  few  years  ago,  its  munificent  patrons  conceived  that  the 
old  heavens  might  reveal  new  secrets  to  wise  and  patient  gazers, — 
or  at  least  help  them  to  verify  and  arrange  in  apter  forms  and  in 
more  correct  details  the  knowledge  and  science  already  possessed 
by  the  world,  —  so  too  thought  our  founders  that  their  School  of 
Divinity  might  be  free  and  hopeful  in  the  search  for  truth.  That 
Observatory  was  not  reared  under  the  vain  delusion  that  the 
boldest  instruments  would  secularize  the  sky,  or  subvert  the  order 
of  the  spheres,  or  diminish  or  increase  the  wonders  which  God  had 
wrought  there.  But  still  that  dome  would  never  have  been  built 
nor  pierced  by  the  inquisitive  tubes  and  lenses  of  a  progressive 
science,  had  the  dull  persuasion  been  received  that  the  old  world 
and  the  old  instruments  had  read  out  all  the  heavens,  or  imposed 
the  condition  that  henceforward  the  upper  realms  of  God  should 
be  studied  by  the  human  chart,  and  not  from  the  divine  original. 
The  old  charts,  whether  of  earth  or  of  the  heavens,  are  put  to  the 
best  service  when  the  student  is  using  them,  not  only  as  author- 
ities, but  as  guides  onward.  So  thought  the  Christian  men  who 
aimed  to  connect  with  this  University  a  schsol  for  the  study  of 
Christian  doctrine  and  history.  They  had  a  religious  experi- 
ence of  their  own.  They  had  spent  years  of  life's  youthful  and 
mature  zeal  upon  the  records  and  the  traditions  of  the  Gospel. 
They  were  familiar  with  the  range  which  controversy  covered,  and 
thought  they  apprehended  limitations  upon  its  materials,  and  had 
felt  a  check  upon  its  embittering  spirit.  They  cherished  a  convic- 
tion which  has  cheered  and  quickened  many  earnest  minds,  that 
there  is  a  fellowship  between  believers  which  is  not  a  fellowship  in 
a  creed.  They  conceived  of  a  result  from  various  types  of  expe- 
rience and  from  different  methods  of  speculation,  which  would  har- 
monize, if  only  in  love  and  reverence  for  truth,  all  who  were  seek- 
ing for  it  in  the  large,  free  fields  which  God  had  opened  for  them. 
They  knew  that,  as  all  the  great  circles  of  a  sphere  must  twice  cross 
each  other  in  their  sweep,  so  there  would  be  points  of  contact  and  of 
identity  between  the  disciples  of  the  Divine  Science.  Such  men, 
believing  all  this,  and  inexpressibly  cheered  by  the  belief,  are  to 
be  found  now  in  all  communions  of  the  Christian  Church.  They 
have  never  yet  prevailed  in  their  own  fellowships  against  the  power 


32  THE   CAMBBIDGE   DIVINITY   SCHOOL. 

of  tradition  and  the  limitations  of  sectarian  authority.  Heretofore 
they  have  always  been  withstood  when  they  have  sought  to  put 
their  views  in  the  way  of  being  recognized.  But  every  time  they 
are  discomfited,  their  defeat  multiplies  their  number  and  prepares 
for  the  day  that  is  to  be. 

''  These  patrons  of  sacred  learning  and  of  Christian  studies 
thought  it  possible  for  them  to  furnish  for  the  use  of  free,  earnest 
minds  the  appliances  of  thorough  knowledge  for  the  intelligent  and 
devout  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  without  having  in  view  the 
patronage  or  the  discomfiture  of  any  sect  or  party.  They  believed 
that  materials  and  helps  might  be  gathered  here  for  that  high  pur- 
pose ;  that  the  circumstances  of  time  and  past  experience  had  pre- 
pared the  way  for  a  favorable  trial  of  their  plan,  and  that  this 
community  would  furnish  those  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  it  in 
the  noble  spirit  in  which  it  was  offered,  without  being  hindered  by 
public  sentiment  or  sectarian  hostility.  They  were  weary  of  the 
old  religious  strifes,  and  were  expecting  a  new  era.  They  reject- 
ed the  sectarian  labels  which  Christians  have  always  been  too 
willing  to  wear.  Their  aim  was  to  break  up  parties,  not  to  form 
a  new  party.  They  were  by  no  means  associated  together  by  a 
belief  of  a  particular  set  or  system  of  doctynal  tenets,  but  enter- 
tained a  variety  of  speculations,  and  ascribed  different  degrees  of 
importance  to  speculation  in  religion.  Their  zeal  was  in  the  di- 
rection of  charity ;  their  hope  was  for  reconciliation  of  strifes. 
They  wished  to  offer  to  serious  and  high-minded  Christian  scholara 
all  the  means  of  free,  thorough,  and  generous  culture ;  to  put  in 
their  hands  an  abused  Bible,  with  the  best  dictionaries  and  the  best 
commentaries ;  to  educate  them  in  the  languages  which  would  , 
help  to  its  interpretation ;  to  instruct  them  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  and  in  the  lives  and  opinions  of  its  more  re- 
markable disciples,  and  to  leave  the  result  to  time  and  truth. 

"  The  highest  aim  of  the  founders  of  this  School  would  have 
been  met,  they  could  not  have  complained,  they  would  not  have 
complained,  if  each  class  of  its  Alumni  had  furnished  one  or  more 
oainisters  to  the  several  Protestant  sects,  drawn  to  their  respective 
communions  by  affinities,  temperament,  or  aptitude,  by  sympathies 
3f  education,  culture,  or  affection,  but  carrying  with  them  a  large, 


THB  OAMBBIDGB  DIYINITT  SCHOOL.  83' 

geDerous  tone  of  thought,  a  catholic  spirit,  for  harmoniziog  and 
binding  the  disciples  of  all  creeds.     Thus  would  have  been  real- 
ized the  Apostle's  prophetic  wisdom,  —  that  the  one  Spirit  would 
manifest  itself  through  a  diversity  of  gifts  and  operations.    These 
Liberal  Christians,  as  they  were  called,  had  learned  to  recognize 
this  truth  as  abundantly  proved  and  illustrated,  —  that  two  ingredi- 
ents enter  into  our  forms  and  dispensations  of  religion  :  first,  the 
essential,  substantial  Grospel  doctrine,  the  truth  of  Christ  in  life 
and  heart;  and,  second,  the  prepossessions  or  proclivities  or  pref- 
erences which  are  to  be  referred  to  taste  or  temperament  or  sen- 
sibility, to  the.  varying  compass  or  demands  of  the  intellect,  the 
force  of  habit,  association,  education,  or  sympathy.      The  aim 
was  a  noble  one.     Those  who  cherished  it  believed  that  the  in- 
fluences which  had  brought  them  to  entertain  it  would  extend 
over  the  Commonwealth,  modifying  opinion,  repressing  contro- 
versy, strengthening  their  cause,  and  allowing  it  a  steady,  unchal- 
lenged progress.     It  was  a  noble  aim,  a  noble  hope.     Whatever 
long  results  shall  be  realized  from  it,  whatever  final  sentence  shall 
,  be  passed  upon  the  wisdom  or  the  practicability  of  their  plan,  those 
who  do  justice  to  its  founders  will  recognize  the  generosity  and 
largeness  of  their  spirit    If  I  could  call  them  back  from  their 
cherished  resting-places,  and  see  them  as  I  speak,  filling  these 
Beats,  I  would  express  to  them  the  grateful  homage  of  one  who 
has  profited  by  their  labors,  and  who  appreciates  the  noble  gener- 
(ftity  of  their  Christian  design. 

"  A  score  of  hurried  years  burdened  with  changes,  pressing 
cares  that  confuse  while  they  engage  the  mind,  may  have  impaired 
the  freshness  of  my  own  remembrances  of  what  this  School  seem- 
ed to  me  when  I  was  a  member  of  it  But  its  privileges  I  have 
®^er  since  been  appreciating.  Those  who  were  then  its  instructors 
^  love  to  remember,  for  affection  and  honor  connect  themselves 
^ith  their  names,  their  features,  their  mind  and  faithful  discipline. 
The  elder  Ware,  that  venerable,  good  old  man,  whose  steps  had 
hegun  to  totter,  and  whose  head  had  long  trembled  on  its  withering 
tTunk,  comes  back  to  me  whenever  I  come  here.  How  candid 
^Jid gentle  and  true  he  was;  moderate,  slow  even,  but  not  dull; 
*      Pawionless,  but  still  earnest ;  the  embodiment  of  all  that  was  win- 


f 


'34:  THE   GAMBBIBQE  DIYIKITT  SCHOOL. 

ning  and  persuasive  in  a  religious  guide  of  youDg  men !  *  And 
his  son,  the  junior  Professor,  —  the  inventor  and  proposer  of  every 
good  work  in  our  brotherhood,  devout,  fervent  in  spirit,  whose 
eye  and  voice  and  heart  and  life  all  preached,  and  preached  the 
same  doctrine,  because  in  the  same  spirit  of  Christian  love !  I 
may  not  name  him  who  yet  lives,  beloved  by  all  his  pupils  be- 
cause he  was  so  true  to  them,  as  he  has  ever  been  true  in  other 
great  trusts  to  God  and  man,  to  his  country,  to  humanity,  to 
righteousness.  Such  was  the  aim  of  this  School ;  such  the  men 
to  whom  it  was  intrusted.*' 

In  this  closing  sentence  Professor  Ellis  referred  to  John 
Gorham  Palfrey,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  who  for  many  years  ably 
filled  the  ofl&ce  of  Professor  of  Sacred  Criticism.  We  feel 
sure  that  many  beside  ourselves  responded  to  the  words  of 
affectionate  respect  with  which  he  was  here  alluded  to.  It 
will  be  observed  that  it  was  the  speaker's  purpose  to  make 
mention  only  of  those  teachers  who  belonged  to  the  School 
while  he  "  was  a  member  of  it."  Some  of  us  who  were  pu- 
pils in  that  institution  at  an  earlier  period  were  reminded  of 
Professors  whom  we  then  knew,  Andrews  Norton,  Sidney 
Willard,  Charles  Follen,  whose  names  may  be  fittingly  re- 
peated, as  showing  still  further  the  faithful,  wise,  and  honored 
men  by  whom  the  School  has  been  sustained. 

Of  the  results  of  this  School,  of  the  men  it  has  trained  up 
for  the  service  of  the  churches,  the  Address  thus  speaks :  — 

**Not  in  complete  failure,  certainly,  but  only  in  moderate  and 
qualified  success,  does  the  practical  working  of  the  purpose  de- 
signed in  this  School  present  itself  to  our  questionings.  Allow- 
ing for  what  some  would  pronounce  upon  as  the  impracticable 
character  of  the  scheme  itself,  and  for  the  embarrassments  inciden- 
tal and  inseparable  connected  with  it;  taking  into  account  also  the 
jealousies  and  animosities  which  attach  to  all  our  religious  pro- 
jects ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  having  in  view  the  revolutionary 
and  chaotic  crisis  through  which  our  theology  has  been  passing, 


THE   CAMBBIDGE  DIYIKITY   SCHOOL.  35 

we  may  conclude  that  this  School  has  serred  to  good  ends.  Schol- 
ars and  teachers,  preachers  and  pastors,  wise  and  good  men,  have 
been  trained  here,  who  have  here  learned  to  love  truth,  righteous- 
ness, humanity,  and  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  after  the  method 
of  his  Gospel,  to  minister  in  his  Church  where  Providence  gave 
them  a  place.  I  see  before  me  now  a  large  company  of  those 
who  have  given  to  this  holy  work  the  dew  of  their  youth,  the 
strength  of  their  manhood,  the  persevering  fidelity  of  their  age  ; 
and  who  caught  from  these  cherished  scenes  and  from  beloved 
teachers  the  inspiration  of  their  rewarding  toil.  Of  those  whose 
labor  is  not  yet  finished  I  will  not  speak  in  praise.  But  of  the 
dead,  —  Mr.  President  and  Brethren  of  the  Alumni  of  this  School, 
— whom  we  have  followed  through  their  finished  work  to  their 
long  repose,  and  transferred  in  spirit  to  the  communion  above,  — 
we  have  loved  them,  and  may  we  not  praise  them  ?  The  scenes 
of  their  ministry  have  borne  witness  to  them.  Over  each  of  them 
in  death  the  commemorative  tribute  was  offered.  Their  memo- 
rials are  precious  with  us.  Only  as  the  roll  of  their  starry  names 
passes  through  our  minds,  and  answering  features  rise  to  renew 
the  mortal  presence  of  each  of  them,  are  we  made  to  realize  how 
many  they  have  been,  and  how  cherished  for  their  sakes,  as  for 
our  own,  should  be  this  School  of  their  professional  training." 

This  paragraph  in  Professor  Ellis's  Address  has  led  us  to 
cast  our  eye  over  the  Catalogue  of  the  Cambridge  Divinity 
School.  We  find  it  has  graduated  317  pupils  in  41  classes, 
averaging  nearly  8  to  each  class.  We  do  not  know  how 
sanguine  were  the  expectations  of  the  projectors  of  this 
institution ;  but  we  think  that,  if  they  could  have  foreseen 
what  a  list  of  names  it  would  «nroll  before  its  first  semi-cen- 
tennial celebration,  they  would  feel  that  their  labors  had 
not  ended  in  failure.  We  should  like  to  give  the  names  of 
fifteen  or  twenty  graduates  from  this  institution,  as  suggest- 
ing the  eminence,  as  preachers  and  scholars,  to  which  they 
have  attained.  The  semi-centennial  anniversary  of  a  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  founded  a  few  years  prior  to  that  at  Cam- 


86  THB   OAMBBIBGB  DIVIKITT  SOHOOL. 

bridge,  will  soon  be  celebrated.  Andover  will  commemorate 
her  fiftieth  anniversary  in  1858.  We  have  not  a  word  to 
say  in  disparagement  of  that  institution. .  We  are  grateful 
for  the  pious  charity  which  established  it,  for  the  contribu- 
tions it  has  made  to  the  cause  of  Biblical  learning,  and  for 
the  services  it  has  rendered  to  the  churches  in  supplying 
them  with  a  ministry  "  furnished  unto  good  works."  Indeed, 
we  feel  particularly  indebted  to  it  for  the  training  it  has 
given  to  some  who  are  now  honored  preachers  in  our  own 
connection ;  and  we  know  that  on  its  larger  Catalogue  of 
graduates  there  are  names  of  many  who  have  left  their 
strong  and  pure  mark  upon  the  community  in  which  they 
have  lived.  We  only  say,  that  we  believe  that,  in  propor- 
tion to  numbers,  the  position  and  infiuence  of  the  graduates 
at  Cambridge  will  not  suffer  in  comparison  with  those  of 
Andover,  or  of  any  other  similar  institution.  There  is  one 
point  of  view  in  which  a  survey  of  the  Cambridge  Catalogue 
gives  us  some  surprise.  It  is  the  number  of  graduates  who 
have  been  diverted  from  the  clerical  profession  into  other 
callings  in  life.  We  have  instituted  no  comparison  with  the 
graduates  of  other  theological  schools,  many  of  whom,  as 
we  all  know,  finding  the  pulpit  not  their  proper  sphere  of 
influence,  become  teachers,  or  agents  of  benevolent  associa- 
tions. Still  we  have  the  impression  that  the  number  prao-  • 
tioally  lost  to  the  churches  is  greater  with  us  than  with  oth^ 
denominations ;  though  we  feel,  at  the  same  time,  that  the 
effects  of  a  liberal  and  thorough  course  of  theological  study 
may  beneficially  reappear  in  various  walks  in  life,  and  that 
it  is  a  further  reason  to  value  the  Cambridge  School,  that 
she  has  sent  out  influences  which  are  felt  in  the  statesmen, 
apd  historians,  and  editors,  and  teachers  of  the  country. 

One  result  to  which  the  Cambridge  School  has  contrib- 
uted is  thus  stated  by  Professor  Ellis,  in  terms  the  strength 


THE   OAMBBIDGE  DIVINITT  SCHOOL.  .     87 

of  which  has  been  objected  to,  but  from  which,  understand- 
ing them  to  relate  to  the  neighborhood  of  which  he  is  speak- 
ing, we  see  no  cause  to  make  any  'abatement. 

''  But  to  one  great  and  propitious  result,  this  School,  through 
its  whole  spirit  and  influence,  has  largely  contributed,  —  that  is, 
the  breaking  of  the  bonds  of  the  old  *  Orthodoxy.'  As  surely  as 
the  light  of  day  is  now  shining  upon  us,  the  incubus  of  the  old 
Calvinistic  system  has  been  lifled  from  the  most  vigorous  religious 
thought  of  our  age.  This  statement  may  be  denied  with  the  pos- 
itiveness  of  old  dogmatism,  or  with  the  bitterness  of  a  disappointed 
bigotry.  But  it  is  true.  No  plea,  no  boldness,  no  feigned  calm- 
ness of  assertion,  can  disguise  this  truth  from  those  who  acquaint 
themselves  from  the  first  sources  with  the  influences  which  are 
now  working  in  the  deeper  channels  of  religious  thought  and  in- 
quiry. No  subtlety  in  the  use  of  language,  no  equivocal  play 
with  the  old  theological  formulas,  can  conceal  the  fact  that  the 
*  Orthodox '  of  our  day  do  not  hold  honestly,  loyally,  or  substan- 
tially the  doctrinal  creed  of  the  fathers  of  New  England,  or  of  the 
Puritans  of  Old  England.  It  would  be  in  vain  to  argue  the  point 
with  one  who  should  challenge  this  assertion  ;  for  he  would  shel- 
ter himself  behind  a  rampart  of  phrases,  and  throw  words  for  his 
weapons.  But  words  are  no  longer  charged  with  the  issue  of  the 
remaining  strife.  I  have  a  calm  and  unwavering  conviction  that 
the  '  Liberal  Theology '  has  been  preparing,  though  it  has  not 
fully  completed,  the  ark  of  refuge  into  which  even  the  descendants 
of  its  traditionary  foes  will  be  glad  to  seek  shelter,  when  at  last 
the  storm  long  gathering  and  darkening  in  the  horizon  of  faith 
shall  break  upon  the  old,  decayed  hulks  of  *  Orthodoxy.'  " 

In  regard  to  the  second  topic  of  this  Address,  we  must  give 
place  to  the  paragraph  in  which  the  Professor  defines  the 
subject  assigned  to  him,  and  we  shall  carefully  quote  his 
own  language,  as  we  have  a  word  or  two  of  criticism  to 
oflTer. 

"  What  is  meant  by  Systematic  Theology  ?     What  is  aimed 
after  by  it?    How  far,  and  under  what  conditions  and  limitations, 
VOL.  V.  NO.  I.  4 


38  .  THE   GAMBBmaE  DIYIKITY  SCHOOL. 

is  the  object  proposed  by  it  attainable  ?  AdcI  what  are  the  charac- 
teristicT  features  of  success  or  failure  in  all  the  attempts  which 
have  been  made  to  develop  it  ?  These  are  questions  too  long  for 
our  exhaustive  treatment  We  can  but  touch  them  with  super- 
ficial attention.  Systematic  Theology  is  a  taking  of  the  Gospel  apart 
as  it  comes  to  us,  and  a  putting  it  together  again  in  a  form  supposed 
to  be  better  suited  to  our  understanding  and  use  of  it.  It  attempts 
to  resolve  revelation  into  its  elements,  and  then  to  set  them  forth 
in  a  system.  In  this,  Systematic  Theology  shows  analogies  with 
the  method  used  in  many  of  the  physical  and  demonstrative  sci- 
ences, and  in  intellectual  and  moral  philosophy.  The  anatomist 
takes  a  human  body,  and,  after  dissecting  it,  asks  a  chemist  to  help 
him  to  analyze  its  solid  and  fluid  elements.  Muscle  and  bone,  tis- 
sue and  nerve,  vein  and  artery,  and  the  several  humors  and  mem- 
branes, are  distinguished  and  separated.  The  parts  yield  to  the 
analysis,  and  may  be  set  down  in  their  proportions  of  chemical 
composition,  bulk,  and  substance,  in  a  scientific  table.  Meanwhile 
the  principle  of  life,  hunted  afler  everywhere,  eludes  the  search, 
and  is  more  subtle  than  the  analysis.  That  principle  of  life  is  the 
object,  the  end,  the  purpose,  the  result  of  the  whole  organization, 
but  it  keeps  its  own  secret. 

*'  The  theologian  has  an  analogous  object.  His  aim  is  to  develop 
the  system  of.  Christian  truth,  so  far  as  it  has  or  is  a  system  ;  to 
distinguish  and  classify  its  doctrines,  fundamental  and  organic; 
and  to  set  forth  its  cardinal  truths,  with  the  grounds  of  their  au- 
thority, whether  that  authority  be  primary  and  dogmatic,  or  be 
submitted  to  the  trial  and  ratification  of  our  own  faculties.  The 
theologian  seeks  thus  to  penetrate  to  the  inner  essence,  the  life- 
throb  of  the  Gospel.  The  anatomist  begins  his  work  upon  a  sub- 
ject already  lifeless ;  too  often  has  the  theologian  killed  his  in  the 
process." 

Now  the  words  we  have  italicized  have  suggested  the 
two  following  queries.  First,  if  it  be  true  that  the  object 
aimed  at  by  systematic  theology  be  to  find  a  form  of  the 
Gospel  supposed  to  be  better  suited  to  our  understanding 
and  use  of  it  ?     Rather  it  would  seem  that  the  true  object 


THE   OAMBSIDGE  DIYINITT  SCHOOL.  89 

is  to  find  the  actual  form  in  which  it  comes  to  us,  we  being 
assured  that  that  form  is  the  best,  and  no  improvement  is 
possible ;  just  as  it  is  the  object  of  the  dissections  of  the 
anatomist  to  ascertain  the  actual  form  of  the  human  bodj, 
and  not  to  contrive  some  improved  form.  Secondly,  if 
the  phraseology  here  used  does  not  admit  the  existence 
of  the  thing  which  other  parts  of  the  Address  imply  can- 
not be  found,  —  namely,  a  complete  System  of  truth  ?  For 
when  we  speak  of  taking  a  thing  apart,  as  the  dissector 
takes  apart  the  human  body,  this  language  admits  it  must 
have  had  some  pre-existing  form  and  system,  and  that  origi- 
nal,  dirine  form  and  system  is  the  thing  we  are  in  search  of. 
In  short,  the  position  taken  here  is  either  not  so  clearly 
right,  or  not  so  well  expressed,  as  is  common  with  this  writer. 
We  do  not  find  a  distinct  statement  of  what  the  professor- 
ship should  seek.  All  the  analogy  of  the  illustrations,  and 
the  logic  of  the  argument,  require  the  admission  of  a  system 
of  divine  truth ;  that  what  Gk>d  reveals  to  us,  he  revests  in 
harmony  with  the  nature  of  the  human  mind.  Of  the  false, 
prejudiced,  and  lifeless  forms  in  which  systems  have  been 
made,  the  Address  utters  truthful  words  ;  but  we  fail  to  feel 
that  here  is  any  reason  why  we  should  not  hope  to  find  a 
true,  full-circled,  and  vital  system,  if  we  seek  for  it  in  the 
free,  generous,  and  noble  spirit  which  is  here  enjoined.  As 
to  the  supposed  risks  of  seeking  it  in  that  spirit,  the  Profes- 
sor has  some  words  which  constitute  the  most  eloquent  and 
weighty  portions  of  this  Address,  and  a  page  or  two  on  this 
head  we  cannot  refrain  from  quoting. 

*'  The  risks  which  excite  the  anxiety  even  of  the  friends  of  this 
School  are,  Ihs/t  this  perfect,  unfettered  freedom  of  study  and 
speculation,  with  no  moorings  and  no  dictation,  may  result  only 
in  unsettled  minds,  and  may  imperil  the  traditionary  and  conven- 
tional opinions  and  institutions  wrought  in  with  the  great  Chris- 


40  THE   CAMBRIDGE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL. 

tian  structure.  Brief  as  has  been  the  term  of  years  covered  by 
the  existence  of  this  School,  its  friends  have  had  their  love  for  it 
chilled,  and  their  hopes  from  it  darkened  into  apprehensions.  The 
transient  excitements  which  successively  agitate  our  religious  cen- 
tres take  their  impulse  from  extreme  causes,  and  urge  in  opposite 
directions.  At  times  it  has  seemed  necessary  to  plead  here  for 
perfect  freedom  in  religious  speculation,  as  for  a  right  distrusted 
or  denied.  And  there  have  been  exigencies  when  we  have  seemed 
to  dread  the  fruits  of  this  freedom,  and  have  been  almost  moved 
to  build  again  the  things  which  we  once  destroyed,  to  restore  both 
impositions  and  limitations,  and  to  squeeze  the  essence  of  the  old 
Inquisition  into  a  certificate  withheld  or  granted  in  the  shape  of  a 
clean  bill  of  doctrinal  health  addressed  to  the  churches.  It  was 
feared  that  the  School  might  educate  its  pupils  out  of  any  good 
use  of  the  very  education  which  it  gives  them.  Happily,  what- 
ever occasion  there  was  for  such  a  fear,  and  whatever  expression 
or  indulgence  of  it  there  may  have  been,  it  has  not  as  yet  reached 
any  demonstration  that  has  proved  the  risks  of  scepticism  to  be 
peculiar  to  the  methods  or  influences  prevailing  here. 

''And  yet  there  must  be  some  safeguard,  some  restraining,  some 
directing  agency,  implied  or  exerted  in  connection  with  this  free- 
dom of  theological  study.  Common  sense,  sound  reason,  the  pro- 
prieties of  the  case,  all  suggest  to  us,  that,  as  this  is  a  Christian 
School,  its  pupils  should  be  Christians,  and  its  graduates  should 
be  Christians.  Therefore  some  conditions  should  be  imposed  £>r 
the  enjoyment  of  its  scholarly  privileges,  and  of  its  funds  of  con- 
secrated charity,  while  the  method  and  influences  of  the  School 
should  help  directly  to  foster  faith  and  piety  in  its  members.  This 
is  not  an  academic  grove  of  philosophy,  nor  a  nestling-place  of 
scholastic  speculation.  Its  training  ought  in  no  single  case  to 
result  either  in  the  barrenness  or  the  ingenuities  of  scepticism. 
Beginning  with  the  Bible,  bedewed  and  consecrated  by  the  rever- 
ent faith  of  ages,  and  giving  to  its  pupils  the  means  for  the  better 
understanding  of  its  contents,  and  of  the  most  effective  way  for 
making  its  truths  quick  and  powerful  as  addressed  to  the  living 
heart  of  humanity.  It  surely  ought  not  to  end  —  with  nothing. 
The  appeal  which  first  established  this  School  came  from  Chris- 


THE   CAMBBIDGB  DIYHnTT  80H00L.  41 

tians,  and  was  addressed  to  Christians,  and  pleaded  for  a  Christian 
institution.  Every  book  in  its  library,  every  gift  to  its  treasury, 
was  bestowed  for  a  Christian  purpose.  It  fulfils  that  purpose  only 
when  it  educates  able  and  faithful  and  devoted  ministers  for  Chris- 
tian pulpits.  The  idiosyncrasies  and  peculiarities  of  mental  con- 
stitution drawn  out  or  indulged  here,  may  naturally  result,  at  times, 
in  proving  that  some  pupils  will  not  be  available  for  the  Church. 
They  may  lose  their  belief  and  piety,  —  supposing  those  qualities 
to  have  been  once  possessed.  They  may  become  eccentric  in 
opinion,  impracticable  in  their  aims,  ineffective  for  influencing 
others  for  good.  If  the  School  should  produce  many  such,  the 
simple  consequence  —  is  it  an  unreasonable  one  ?  —  will  be,  that 
churches  as  churches,  generous  benefactors  such  as  it  has  had, 
will  feel  no  interest  in  it.  Friends  will  then  fail  it,  or,  at  least, 
it  will  have  to  undertake  that  hazardous  and  seldom  successful 
task  of  changing  friends,  by  finding  new  ones. 

'*And  what  shall  be  the  restraint,  what  the  safeguard,  of  the 
Christian  intent  and  influences  of  this  School  ?  We  repudiate  all 
the  old,  sectarian  tests,  limitations,  and  covenants.  We  have  not 
the  inclination,  even  if  we  had  the  wit,  to  devise  a  new  one.  It 
is  weakness  always,  —  and  what  is  more  and  worse,  it  is  a  sense 
of  weakness,  a  consciousness  of  it  taking  the  form  of  a  poor  fear, 
—  which  suggests  the  binding  of  a  fetter  on  free  thought.  We 
must  find  wise  and  just  restraints  against  the  inroads  and  ruin  of 
a  reckless  scepticism,  within  the  terms  of  the  very  freedom  exer- 
cised here. 

"And  the  first  method  of  wise  restraint  upon  the  spirit  of  scep- 
ticism as  induced  by  free  theological  study,  is  in  a  wise  allowance 
to  it.  We  cannot  prevent  it,  nor  repress  it.  It  lies  in  the  way 
of  those  processes  of  thought  which  we  engage  upon  the  record  ; 
it  besets  every  theme  on  which  we  speculate,  and  is  itself  one  of 
the  helps  and  instruments  of  speculation.  Not  to  any  one  of  you, 
my  brethren,  is  the  spectre  which  lurks  within  the  shadows  of  yon- 
der theological  hall  an  unknown  shape.  You  saw  it  in  the  open 
daylight,  as  you  turned  into  a  word-study,  and  a  subject  of  critical 
inquiry,  the  old  record,  which  was  writ  solely  for  uses  of  piety. 

4* 


42  THE   CAMBRIDGE   DIVINITY   SCHOOL. 

You  felt  the  nightmare  of  that  spectre,  as,  with  thought  and  faith 
all  in  a  maze,  you  went  to  your  rest.  And  you  never  put  that 
spectre  wholly  down,  so  long  as  you  stayed  within  those  walls. 
You  have  dissolved  its  mocking  shape  hy  going  into  the  thick  of 
life,  and  proving  the  power  of  faith  in  its  active  strife  with  evil 
and  sin.  Our  own  doubts  yield  only  afler  we  have  tried  to  make 
others  believe,  and  have  succeeded  in  the  effort.  Incident  to  theo- 
logical, critical.  Scriptural  study  is  this  spirit  of  scepticism,  espe- 
cially  in  our  age.  It  is  said,  and  truly,  that  there  were  in  former 
times  men  as  learned  in  Scripture  studies,  and  as  profound  think- 
ers, as  there  are  now,  but  who  were  never  even  annoyed  by  scepti- 
cism, much  less  enthralled  by  it.  It  is  because  such  men  did 
believe  without  testing  everything,  that  some  now  stumble  all  the 
more  at  finding  such  a  class  of  believers  on  the  line  by  which  faith 
traces  backward  its  sanctions.  Their  implicit  faith  has  helped  to 
bring  faith  into  discredit,  instead  of  commending  it  confirmed  to 
us.  The  root  and  impulse  of  much  of  the  sceptical  spirit  which 
has  manifested  itself,  even  within  the  best  guarded  folds  of  the 
Church,  has  been,  that  men  once  believed  too  readily ;  that  they 
did  not  do  justice  to  themselves,  to  their  own  faculties,  to  the 
laws  of  evidence ;  and  that,  consequently,  much  which  they  have 
accredited  to  us  in  science,  philosophy,  and  religion  needs  re- 
examination that  it  may  be  re- authenticated.  There  has  been,  too, 
a  keener  inquisition,  a  sharper  scrutiny,  a  more  penetrating-  and 
thorough  ordeal  of  test  and  challenge  visited  upon  the  materials 
and  elements  of  faith  in  our  own  day.  The  trial  is  an  infinitely 
harder  one.  To  an  European  Christendom  which  believed  itself 
part  of  a  world  six  thousand  years  old,  have  been  told  tales  of 
ancient  astronomical  calculations  and  royal  dynasties  covering 
some  forty  thousand  years.  To  a  race  of  believers  who  regarded 
their  Bibles  as  containing  records  parallel  in  contents  and  author- 
ship with  the  whole  history  of  the  world,  have  been  offered  the 
sacred  writings  of  other  faiths  which  boast — idly  indeed,  but  none 
the  less  boldly  —  that  they  had  a  long  start  on  the  recorded  page. 
The  old  faith  of  Christians  has  been  buffeted  and  browbeaten  by 
weapons  out  of  old  mounds,  and  by  bricks  shaken  from  the  walls 
of  heathenish  old  palaces^    This  sceptical  trial  of  our  belief  has 


THE   CAMBBID6B  DIVINITY   SCHOOL.  48 

been  pressed  most  vigorously  by  the  conjoined  forces  of  a  large, 
free-daring  spirit  of  investigation,  ploughing  into  the  sands  of 
Nineveh,  and  staring  the  old  Egyptian  Sphinxes  out  of  counte- 
nance, boasting  of  progress  before  it  has  been  won,  and  tossing  all 
political  and  social  problems  into  a  vortex  of  strife  and  debate. 
It  was  never  so  before :  the  tests  of  truth  were  never  so  severe, 
nor  the  triumphs  of  faith  so  hard  in  the  winning.  What  is  more, 
candor  compels  from  us  the  admission,  that  no  solution,  no  har- 
monizing, rebutting,  or  reconstructive  argument,  has  as  yet  been 
given  which  we  can  expect  will  be  satisfactory  to  those  who  have 
opened  all  our  new  questions  and  confounded  the  speech  in  which 
the  builders  of  the  old  towers  of  faith  understood  each  other. 

'*  Yet  it  is  all  folly  to  pretend  that  these  sceptical  risks  and  con- 
sequences are  the  peculiar  products  of  the  perfect  freedom  in  theo- 
logical studies  afforded  here.  The  spirit  of  Rationalism  wanders 
about  in  all  dry  places.  It  visits  the  Seminary  hill  in  Andover, 
the  sand  plains  of  Princeton,  and  the  shaded  nooks  of  old  Cam- 
bridge and  Oxford.  Indeed,  some  of  the  very  classics  of  modem 
scepticism  have  come  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  Established  Church 
of  England." 

May  we  not  hope  that  an  institution  which  has  received 
such  important  accessions  to  its  working  power  will  become 
a  more  cherished  object  of  interest  to  our  churches,  and  that 
those  who  have  influence  over  promising  and  serious-minded 
young  men  will  turn  their  attention  to  the  means  here  of- 
fered for  their  preparation  for  the  noblest  profession  to  which 
human  agency  can  be  called  ? 


44  PARIS. 


PARIS. 


BY  RET.    WILLIAM  MOUNTPORD. 

Four  days  we  waited,  near  Brighton,  for  weather  in 
which  to  cross  the  Channel.  And  when  at  last,  one  Decem- 
ber morning,  we  got  across,  it  was  with  fear  and  trembling ; 
for  soon  afler  we  lefl  port,  the  barometer  exhibited  a  most 
extraordinary  fall  of  the  mercury ;  and  by  the  time  we  were 
within  sight  of  Dieppe,  we  found  ourselves  threatened  from 
behind  by  an  awful  cloud,  a  floating  arsenal  of  thunder- 
bolts. And  very  gladly  did  we  find  ourselves  inside  of  the 
harbor. 

O,  what  a  change  with  crossing  a  few  leagues  of  water  I 
The  people  are  different,  the  houses  are  different,  the  streets 
are  different,  and  so  are  the  horses  and  carts,  and  the  wo- 
men's tall  caps.  And  hark !  that  is  French,  —  that  is  a 
foreign  language !  "  Monsieur,  votre  passeport."  Horses 
and  harness,  houses  and  wooden  shoes,  and  even  dogs  and 
cats,  in  all  these  things  France  differs  from  England.  But 
all  these  differences  are  as  nothing  to  the  passport  system. 
A  policeman,  with  a  sword  by  his  side,  stopping  you  vnth 
"  Sir,  where  is  your  passport  ?  "  —  ah !  this  persuades  one 
of  being  in  a  foreign  land  more  effectually  than  even  the 
speech  of  Normandy,  or  the  loud,  thumping  clatter  of 
wooden  shoes  on  the  pavement.  But  soon,  the  passport 
having  been  examined,  we  are  free,  in  conformity  with  what 
has  been  found  therein  requested  and  required  in  the  name 
of  her  Majesty  by  '*  us,  George  William  Frederick,  Earl 
of  Clarendon,  Baron  Hyde  of  Hindon,  a  Peer  of  the  Unit- 
ed Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  a  Member  of 
her .  Britannic  Majesty's  Most  Honorable  Privy  Council, 


PABIS.  45 

Knight  of  the  Most  Noble  Order  of  the  Gsuler,  and  Knight 
Grand  Cross  of  the  Most  Honorable  Order  of  the  Bath, 
her  Majesty's  Principal  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  etc.,  etc,  etc'' 

On  landing  in  France,  the  stranger  is  surprised  at  the 
great,  high  houses.  Soon,  however,  he  begins  to  miss  the 
people,  who  should  be  the  occupants  of  such  buildings.  But 
indeed  these  great  buildings  are  not  what  they  would  seem ; 
for  really  they  are  houses  piled  one  above  another,  —  struc- 
tures in  which  every  floor  is  a  distinct  habitation. 

Dieppe  seemed  to  me  remarkable,  before  everything 
else,  for  its  fenude  dealers  in  fish.  Fishwomen,  I  should 
have  called  them,  but  that  the  word  woman  is  too  gentle  and 
good  for  what  they  would  seem  to  be.  Dirty,  gigantic,  fero- 
cious, they  are  indeed  terrible  to  look  at.  And  as  I  saw 
them  standing  together  and  quarrelling  on  the  quay,  I 
seemed  to  realize  what  the  ^^  Poissardes  "  were,  in  the  days 
of  the  Revolution  and  Marie  Antoinette. 

Dieppe  was  once  the  chief  port  of  France  ;  and  though 
now  it  is  only  a  fishing  town,  yet  formerly  it  was  in  commu- 
nication with  every  region  of  the  world  then  known,  and  its 
merchants  were  so  great,  that  by  one  of  them,  at  the  head 
of  a  fleet  of  his  own,  the  king  of  Portugal  was  defied  in 
the  very  midst  of  Lisbon.     Products  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  once  passed  through  Dieppe,  from  Canada,  from  Sen- 
egal, and  from  the  East  Indies.     But  of  all  this  vast  com- 
merce, the  sole  memorial  which  is  now  to  be  found  is  in 
the  manufacture   of  carved  ivory,  which  is  almost  pecu- 
liar to  the  place,  and  which  began  in  consequence  of  the 
facilities  which  once  existed  there  for  procuring  elephants' 
tuBks. 

This  utter  decline  of  what  was  once  an  eminent  city  is 
attributable  partly  to  the  superiority  of  Havre  as  a  port. 


46  PARIS. 

and  only  partly ;  for,  like  many  another  flourishing  city  of 
France,  Dieppe  suffered  much  from  the  suppression  of  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  and  especially  from  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  consequent  emigration  of  many  of 
its  best  and  most  valuable  citizens.  It  was  close  by  Dieppe, 
and  within  reach  of  help  from  its  walls,  that  Henry  the 
Fourth  gained  that  great  victory  which  made  him  king  of 
the  Catholics,  as  well  as  the  Protestants  of  France.  His 
troops  were  but  four  thousand ;  and  opposed  to  him  was  an 
army  of  thirty  thousand  Leaguers.  Before  the  battle,  he 
was  taunted  by  an  officer  of  the  League  with  the  fewness 
of  his  forces  ;  but  the  brave  Bearnese  answered,  "  You  do 
not  see  them  all :  for  you  do  not  count  Grod  and  the  good 
right  which  assist  me."  God  as  being  the  God  of  us  all 
alike,  and  the  good  right  of  every  one  to  worship  God  in 
the  prompting  of  his  own  soul,  —  through  not  remembering 
these  things,  there  is  many  a  city  of  France  and  the  Conti- 
nent which  has  been  impoverished,  enfeebled,  and  degraded. 
And  often  a  party  which  has  thought  to  strengthen  itself  by 
the  extinction  of  its  enemies,  has  found  its  victorious  arm 
palsied  by  the  operation  of  invisible  forces,  the  violated  laws 
of  the  spirit. 

From  Dieppe,  our  course  to  Paris  was  through  GisoiB, 
Pontoise,  and  a  few  other  intervening  places,  little  known, 
and  but  little  worth  knowing.  Along  this  region,  there  is 
nothing  whatever  of  much  interest  for  the  traveller :  no  an- 
cient monument,  no  good-looking  house,  no  wood,  no  pretty 
landscape,  and  no  one  picturesque  object.  The  pleasantest 
I'ecollections  which  I  have  of  the  country  are  of  flights  of 
crows,  of  magpies  hopping  about,  and  of  the  mistletoe  ;  for 
throughout  Normandy,  that  singular  parasite,  the  mistletoe, 
is  so  common,  that  in  some  places  there  is  hardly  an  apple- 
tree,  or  a  poplar,  without  a  bush  of  this  evergreen  in  its 


PARIS.  47 

branches.  A  long,  straight  line  of  road,  paved  with  great 
stones ;  an  open  country,  without  any  fences ;  here  and 
there  an  orchard,  or  a  long  row  of  poplars ;  now  and  then 
a  flock  of  sheep,  watched  by  a  shepherd  wearing  a  sheep- 
skin cloak ;  crows  startled  from  a  field,  and  rising  like  a 
black  cloud ;  at  long  intervals,  a  larger  house  than  usual, 
but  dilapidated ;  and,  every  &Ye  or  six  miles,  a  dirty  vil- 
lage ;  —  this  is  Normandy,  or  rather  I  should  say,  this  is  the 
appearance  of  Upper  Normandy.  And  in  order  completely 
to  represent  the  impression  which  I  have  retained  of  the 
country,  I  ought  not  to  omit  mention  of  the  inns.  Always 
they  are  dear,  and  always  in  some  respects  dirty,  and  some- 
times even  filthy.  Dirty  and  dear  I  should  have  always 
thought  these  inns;  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  should  have 
mentioned  them  as  such,  but  that  I  have  found  them  de- 
scribed as  being  pre-eminently  so,  in  a  French  work  which  I 
have  lately  been  reading.  The  author  of  the  Life  of  Char- 
lotte Corday  made  a  pilgrimage  through  Normandy,  and  he 
describes  the  extortion  of  the  innkeepers  as  being  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  country.  He  says  that  the  people  are  cun- 
ning and  avaricious,  and  especially  careful  against  letting 
strangers  gain  any  advantage  over  them.  He  mentions  that 
in  the  South  the  usual  announcement  of  an  inn  is,  "Ici  on 
donne,  —  Here  one  gives  things  to  eat  and  drink  " ;  but  that 
in  Normandy  always  it  is  announced  by  the  host,  "  Ici  on 
vend,  —  Here  one  sells  things  for  eating  and  drinking." 
And  really  a  dinner  of  exquisite  cookery,  and  elegantly 
served,  will  cost  less  than  is  sometimes  charged  in  some. 
Norman  inn  for  bread,  butter,  and  an  egg,  eaten  in  a 
kitchen,  where  the  floor  is  filthy  from  never  having  been 
swept,  and  where,  overhead,  the  rafters  are  black  with 
soot. 

This  uninteresting  region  behind  us,  very  glad  we  were 


48  PABIS. 

to  find  ourselves  passing  Napoleon's  Triumphal  Arch,  and 
soon  stopped  at  the  Barrier  of  Paris  to  answer  questions 
about  tea,  beef,  and  other  articles,  which  are  taxed  before 
being  admitted  into  the  city.  And  at  once  Normandy,  and 
the  dirt  and  dulness  of  it,  were  forgotten,  and  as  though  by 
magic ;  for,  indeed,  having  passed  the  Barriere  de  TEtoile, 
we  were  at  once  in  the  Champs  Elysees,  in  a  forest  of  bril- 
liant lights,  and  environed  by  the  movements  and  the  sounds 
of  life  in  Paris. 

It  is  nearly  twenty  years  since  last  I  saw  this  city.  It  is 
altered  for  the  better  in  appearance,  and  in  some  respects 
also  in  decency.  The  city  is  larger  than  it  was,  and  many 
public  places  of  resort  have  been  much  improved.  The 
streets  are  better  lighted,  and  many  of  them  are  better  paved 
than  they  were.  The  churches  are  better  attended,  and 
Sunday  is  a  little  better  observed  than  formerly ;  and  vice 
is  a  little  less  obtrusive  than  it  was.  I  think  also  that  per- 
haps the  laboring  classes  seem  more  prosperous.  When  I 
was  here  before,  France  was  a  monarchy,  but  now  it  is  an 
empire.  But  Paris  is  still  itself,  is  Paris  still ;  and  is  prob- 
ably less  changed  than  even  it  seems.  The  open  gutters, 
down  which  dirt  used  to  run,  are  now  sunk  under  groniid, 
and  are  sewers ;  and  though  some  of  the  temptations  to  vi^ 
are  not  as  open  as  they  were,  they  probably  are  quite  as 
effective.  But  when  I  say  that  the  city  is  improved  in  de- 
cency, I  mean  that  it  is  simply  improved.  For  in  some 
things  the  filth  and  the  indecencies  are  still  what  might  well 
astonish  a  stranger  even  in  Timbuctoo. 

And  while  I  am  criticising  the  city,  I  would  say  that  I 
think  it  does  not  deserve  the  character  which  its  inhabitants 
have  for  politeness.  The  people  in  the  streets  are  often 
very  rude.  And  in  the  churches,  both  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant, I  have  witnessed  in  a  month  more  acts  of  incivility 


PARIS.  49 

thaa  perhaps  I  had  seen  before  in  places  of  worship  during 
my  whole  life.  Then  too  the  people  are  not  —  However, 
instead  of  saying  what  they  are  not,  I  will  say  what  they 
admire.  In  novels,  the  heroes  and  heroines  prevaricate 
and  tell  &lsehoods  with  great  freedom,  apparently  without 
any  detriment  to  their  characters.  To  ideal  excellence  in 
France,  it  would  seem  that  truthfulness  is  not  necessary. 

Bat  taking  it  just  as  it  is,  Paris  is  Paris,  and  the  one  city 
of  its  kind  in  the  whole  world,  — not  very  moral,  probably, 
and  not  very  dean,  but  very  agreeable ;  and  certainly  not 
very  religious,  but  yet  very,  cheerful.  It  is  a  city  in  which 
there  is  not  much  spiritual  earnestness ;  but  then  also  it  is  a 
place  in  which  stupidity  is  as  little  stupid  as  it  well  can  be 
to  be  human.  Milton  was  bom  in  London  and  resided  there 
nearly  all  his  life.  And  were  he  bom  there  to-day,  he  might 
grow  up  there,  with  his  genius  opening  into  more  than  all 
the  beauty  and  the  solemnity  of  Paradise  Lost,  Lycidas,  and 
Comas.  But  Milton,  a  native  of  Paris,  and  growing  up  to 
be  himself,  would  be  a  natural  impossibility.  The  French 
call  themselves  a  nation  of  sentiment;  but  certainly  it  is 
not  of  such  sentiment  as  would  have  helped  to  form  the 
mind  of  Milton,  or  have  fed  the  meditations  of  Channing. 
At  the  Pantheon,  now  called  the  church  of  St.  Genevieve, 
is  an  inscription  to  Bousseau,  on  what  is  now  a  cenotaph 
because  the  body  has  been  carried  off  from  the  tomb,  — 
"  Here  lies  the  man  of  nature  and  truth."  When  I  read 
this  sentiment,  I  had  recently  been  perusing  the  Confessions 
of  Bousseau,  and  I  felt  what  often  I  had  thought  before,  that 
nature,  truth,  man,  and  such  words,  do  not  always  mean  the 
same  things  in  French  as  in  English.  "  Jean  Jacques,"  said 
I,  as  I  read  the  inscription  on  his  tomb,  "  Jean  Jacques  a 
man  of  nature !  Yes,  but  what  nature  ?  "  Deliberately, 
and  from  his  first  acquaintance  with  her,  he  refused  to  mar- 

VOL.   V.   NO.   T.  5 


50  PABIS. 

ry  the  mother  of  his  children.  And  his  children,  as  &st  as 
they  were  bom,  he  caused  to  be  carried  to  the  foundling 
hospital.  And  other  things  he  tells  of  himself,  revolting, 
atrocious,  and  too  disgusting  to  mention,  but  which  yet  he 
writes  of  quite  complacently,  and  apparently  without  the 
least  consciousness  of  sin.  Rousseau  was  once  the  idol  of 
France,  and  he  is  still  the  object  of  much  sentimental  regard. 
In  the  literature  of  France,  in  many  of  its  social  theories, 
and  in  the  manners  of  all  classes,  there  is  much  which  is 
akin  with  the  inscription,  according  to  which  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  is  accepted  as  the  man  of  nature  and  truth. 
Paris  then  is  not  at  all  a  city  with  the  spirit  of  which  man 
or  woman  can  hope  to  have  their  moral  nature  much 
strengthened.  And  indeed  the  low  morality  of  the  place 
must  be  distinctly  recognized,  or  residents  will  be  the  worse 
even  for  what  good  there  is  here. 

However,  I  do  not  purpose  writing  an  elaborate  criticism 
on  French  society,  or  on  life  in  Paris,  for  which  I  know  very 
well  that  I  am  not  at  all  competent.  Nor  yet  am  I  tempt- 
ed, like  so  many  others,  to  speculate  on  the  political  future  of 
France,  on  the  strength  of  knowing  the  sites  of  the  barri- 
cades, and  of  having  talked  with  one  or  two  "ouvriers," 
and  having  been  acquainted  with  the  editor  of  a  journal, 
and  having  read  two  or  three  newspapers,  and  having  even 
been  a  housekeeper  for  six  months  in  Paris. 

It  is  difficult  here  to  get  information  as  to  the  temper  of 
the  public  politically.  For  the  newspapers  are,  all  of  them, 
in  effect,  revised  by  the  government.  And  Frenchmen 
cannot  well  talk  with  one  another  freely,  and  still  less  can 
they  do  so  with  strangers,  lest  some  person  in  the  company 
should  be  a  spy.  Also  it  is  difficult  even  for  a  native  to  know 
what  the  circumstances  are  which  determine  the  progress 
of  events,  even  such  as  he  himself  shares  in.     Often  the 


PARIS.  51 

politics  of  a  nation  have  been  altered  by  a  mere  trifle,  hap- 
peoing,  however,  in  an  important  place.  And  so  in  this  citj, 
the  wisdom  of  the  wise  and  the  madness  of  the  mob  may 
be  frustrated  perhaps  by  some  little  thing,  the  importance  of 
which  nobody  as  yet  altogether  knows.  In  Paris  hitherto 
always  a  revolution  has  been  began  with  barricades,  and  the 
barricades  have  been  begun  with  paving-stones.  But  lately 
the  streets  have  been  macadamized,  and  there  are  now  no 
paving-stones.  It  is  said  that  they  have  been  broken  up  to 
prevent  their  being  used  by  revolutionists.  This  is  a  small 
matter  in  itself,  yet  it  may  render  a  sudden  outbreak  of  the 
people  more  difficult  than  it  has  yet  been  in  Paris. 

The  other  day,  at  the  bank,  I  received  a  number  of  five- 
franc  pieces.  And  some  of  them  I  found  to  make  a  singu- 
lar illustration  of  the  more  recent  history  of  France.  These 
coins  show  the  variety  of  political  principles  which  exist  here. 
The  Communists  have  never  yet  succeeded  in  possessing 
themselves  of  the  mint,  but  the  coins  in  cu-culation  show 
what  various  political  principles  have  obtained  pre-eminence 
in  France  during  the  present  century,  and  show  also  now 
what  discordant  principles  have  their  advocates  here. 
Among  my  silver  pieces  were  one  of  Napoleon,  the  year  of 
his  return  from  Eussia, — one  of  Louis  the  Eighteenth,  in  the 
year  of  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  —  another  of  Louis, 
after  he  had  been  chased  from  Paris  by  Napoleon,  and  been 
brought  back  again  by  the  allied  armies  after  the  battle  of 
Waterloo,  —  one  of  Charles  the  Tenth,  in  the  very  year 
when  he  lost  his  throne  by  the  three  days  of  July,  —  one  of 
Louis  Philippe,  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  when  he  was 
the  citizen  monarch,  and  another  of  the  same  king,  the 
year  before  his  deposition,  —  one  of  the  French  ItepuJ)Hc,  in- 
scribed with  the  words, "  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,"  —  a 
second  of  the  French  Republic,  with  the  image  and  super- 


52  PARIS. 

r 

scription  of  Louis  Napoleon,  —  and  lastly  a  coin  of  Napo- 
leon the  Third,  Emperor.  And  the  different  parties  repre- 
sented by  these  coins,  with  still  other  political  parties  which 
exist,  are  not  merely  parties  which  differ  from  one  another 
as  voters,  for  they  are  as  hostile  to  one  another  as  nations 
which  never  intermingle.  Across  the  bridges  and  firom 
street  to  street  they  have  fought  till  Paris  has  been  like  a 
battle-field.  And  indeed  for  passions  at  work  in  it,  and  for 
the  manner  in  which  daily  it  is  secured,  at  this  very  time, 
as  always,  this  city  is  a  field  in  which  three  or  four  different 
armies  watch  one  another. 

The  French  nation !  There  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be 
such  a  thing.  There  is  here  a  country  full  of  French  per- 
sons ;  but  they  properly  are  not  a  nation.  For  these  persons 
are  suspicious  of  one  another ;  they  hate  one  another ;  they 
have  shot  at  one  another;  and  they  expect  yet  again  to 
grapple  with  one  another,  in  mortal  fight.  Centuries  must 
elapse  here,  or  some  awful  scourge  must  sweep  the  country, 
or  there  must  be  an  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  greater 
than  France  has  ever  yet  known,  before  the  hostile  parties 
of  this  country  can  be  fused  together,  and  become  truly  one 
people. 

But  disorganization  is  here  more  than  political,  for  it  is 
moral,  spiritual.  In  this  city  exist  together  the  grossest 
superstition,  the  silliest  incredulity,  and  the  maddest  atheism  % 
and  there  are  the  wildest  theories  as  to  property,  and  the 
relations  of  man  and  woman  to  one  another.  In  all  serious 
subjects,  French  thinking  is  apt  to  be  wild,  flighty.  And 
this  is  no  wonder.  It  is  said  that  an  unusually  large  propor- 
tion of  the  ^children  bom  in  France  during  the  Reign  of 
Terror  .were  idiotic.  Now  the  Frahce  of  to-day  is  largely 
the  offspring  of  that  Reign  of  Terror,  and  of  days  akin 
to  it. 


PABIS.  53 

The  revolutions  which  the  French  people  have  passed 
through,  and  hj  which  so  often  their  minds  have  been  con- 
vulsed,  have  been  unfavorable  to  stability,  at  least  as  regards 
public  matters.  During  the  first  revolution,  it  was  almost 
their  object  to  cut  themselves  off  from  that  succession  in 
opinions  and  customs,  which  wisely  used  is  very  largely  the 
education  and  the  safety  of  a  people.  They  abolished  mon- 
archy ;  and  also  they  forbade  the  profession  of  Christianity. 
They  abolished  the  observance  of  Sunday ;  and  also  they 
abolished  even  the  names  of  the  days  of  the  week,  and  the 
names  of  the  months.  From  underneath  the  cathedral  of 
St  Denis  they  disentombed  the  remains  of  the  kings  of 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  and  trampled  upon  them.  It 
was  their  attempt  in  every  way  to  disown  the  past  of  which 
they  themselves  were  the  children,  even  in  regard  to  learn- 
ing manners  and  common  customs,  as  weU  as  in  regard  to 
morality  and  religion.  Of  this  national  madness  there  must 
of  course  survive  some  taint  even  now,  vitiating  sobriety  of 
thought  and  favoring  sudden  and  violent  movement. 

But  what  chiefly  troubles  Paris  is  its  being  the  head  of 
France,  "  Jeune  France."  And  Young  France  has  a  ten- 
dency to  be  hydrocephalous.  Nearly  all  the  vitality  of  the 
country  is  in  the  head,  and  hence  the  head  is  feverish.  And 
the  more  feverish  it  is,  the  more  do  all  the  energies  of  the 
body  flow  to  it.  In  the  cities  and  villages  of  France,  there 
are  no  towns'  meetings.  Power  is  centralized,  and  Paris  is 
the  seat  of  it.  And  so  in  Paris  a  skilful  rising  of  the  mob, 
or  a  coup  d'etat,  revolutionizes  Eouen,  Lyons,  Nantes,  Bor- 
deaux, Marseilles,  Toulon,  and  all  the  frontiers  of  the  coun- 
try. Always  the  fight  is  for  the  Town-hall :  and  with  the 
capture  of  the  Town-hall,  all  France  is  captured.  And  so 
in  this  city  every  needy  man,  and  every  ambitious  man,  and 
every  man  of  blood,  and  every  lover  of  liberty,  and  every 

5* 


54  PABIS. 


V 


indignant  philanthropist,  sees  with  the  eyes  of  his  imagina- 
tion on  the  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  the  words,  "  Revolu- 
tion made  Easy."  And  it  is  because  of  this  perception, 
that  always  the  state  of  Paris  is  feverish  and  liable  to  out- 
break. The  tendency  to  outbreak  necessitates  of  course  the 
imposition  of  restraints ;  and  the  existence  of  restraints  of 
course  irritates  still  more  the  tendency  to  outbreak. 

A  government  strong  in  soldiers,  policemen,  fortifications, 
and  system;  a  mob  longing  to  hoist  the  red  flag;  and 
other  large  classes  divided  against  one  another  by  political 
theories  or  adverse  interests ;  —  these  all  in  Paris  may  not 
live  together  very  cordially,  yet  in  some  manner  they  suc- 
ceed in  making  their  city  what  is  very  agreeable  to  stran- 
gers.  And  indeed  there  is  really  one  cry  in  which  they 
are  all  united,  —  "Few  la  hagatelk"  And  for  those  who 
can  enter  into  the  humor  of  it  thoroughly,  and  who  are  con- 
tent to  live  so,  it  makes  life  in  Paris  a  never-ending  holiday. 

A  walk  in  the  streets  of  Paris  is  very  different  from  a 
walk  in  the  streets  of  London.  In  the  metropolis  of  Eng- 
land, all  the  persons  one  meets  seem  to  be  striving  at  an 
object  to  be  accomplished  by  a  certain  hour  exactly ;  but 
here  everybody  would  appear  to  be  independent  of  busiiieBs 
and  clocks.  In  London  life  is  a  means  to  an  end ;  in  Paris 
life  is  simply  life.  But  here,  more  than  in  any  other  city  in 
the  world,  have  means  been  invented  for  making  that  life 
pleasant,  —  not  pleasantly  profitable,  nor  profitably  pleasant, 
but  simply  pleasant,  lively,  gay. 

With  walking  up  and  down  the  streets,  it  is  easily  per- 
ceived to  be  the  pleasure-place  of  the  world,  the  metropolis 
of  gay  people,  by  the  number  of  houses  for  feasting,  carods- 
ing,  and  amusement,  restaurants,  cafes,  theatres,  and  ball- 
rooms, —  and  by  the  multitude  of  shops,  the  windows  of 
which  are  often  to  be  studied  like  cabinets  or  pictures,  — 


PARIS.  55 

and  hj  the  conyenieiices  of  all  kinds  which  exist  for  mak- 
ing smooth  the  ways  of  life.  There  is  a  Latin  phrase, 
^<homo  &ctas  ad  ungaem"  a  man  finished  to  the  tips  of  his 
fingers.  Of  this  phrase  I  was  reminded  on  the  Boulevard 
des  CapucineSy  bj  seeing  the  sign  of  an  establishment  at 
which  persons  have  their  nails  trimmed.  And  indeed  Paris 
is  uniiyalled  for  physicians,  surgeons,  writers,  singers,  actors, 
tailors,  cooks,  policemen,  and  a  hundred  other  classes,  bj 
whom  there  is  protection  for  the  person,  care  for  life,  and 
decoration  and  delectation  for  it.  And  I  think  that  perhaps 
for  knowledge  simply  as  information,  science,  and  for  that 
training  by  which  a  person  can  be  made  most  thoroughly  a 
man  of  "  the  world  which  now  is,"  there  is  no  city  in  which 
he  can  so  readily  and  fully  attain  his  object  as  at  the  colleges, 
lectures,  museums,  and  libraries  which  exist  here.  There 
is  no  place  like  Paris  for  the  outer  world,  the  outer  man,  and 
even  the  outer  mind. 

And  conformably  with  this,  it  is  an  out-of-door  life  which 
the  Parisian  affects,  —  a  life  I  mean  outside  of  his  own  doors. 
•  In  the  French  language,  there  is  no  word  which  corresponds 
to  the  word  home.  And  certainly  home  life  is  not  a  charac- 
teristic of  Paris,  as  might  easily  be  supposed  from  the 
number  of  public  rooms  for  eating,  drinking,  and  dancing, 
and  from  the  multitudes  of  persons,  whenever  they  can,  who 
throng  the  boulevards  and  public  gardens,  and  who  sit  on 
the  road-side. 

And,  in  an  idle  mood,  there  is  certainly  much  interest  in  • 
merely  sitting  and  seeing  people  pass,  nearly  all  of  them 
seeming  to  be  much  at  their  ease :  persons  in  carriages ; 
workmen  in  short  frocks  called  blouses;  members  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  distinguished  by  a  bit  of  red  ribbon  in 
the  button-hole  of  their  coats ;  soldiers  in  various  uniforms  ; 
nurses  from  the  provinces,  with  their  Celtic  faces ;  priests, 


56  PABIS. 

with  their  broad  hats  and  black  gowns ;  sisters  of  charity, 
with  their  complexions  so  clear,  and  their  great  muslin  caps 
so  white;  policemen,  moving  quietly  along  and  watching 
people  from  the  comers  of  their  eyes;  and  occasionally, 
drawn  very  swiftly,  an  imperial  carriage  with  outriders  and 
an  escort  of  dragoons. 

Besides  these,  I  recollect  some  other  persons  and  things  as 
having  struck  my  attention  during  my  first  walks  here :  the 
number  of  youths  in  the  same  uniform,  probably  of  some 
school ;  the  many  bands  of  boys,  almost  always  each  one  of 
them  being  accompanied  by  two  or  three  priests ;  the  dogs 
which  so  many  ladies  lead  about  with  ribbons,  reminding 
one  of  Sterne's  Maria ;  the  brass  badge  of  the  beggar,  by 
which  he  is  authorized  to  ask  for  charity ;  the  frequency  of 
pubhc  baths  ;  the  creches,  at  which  in&nts  are  taken  in  to  be 
nursed,  while  their  mothers  are  at  work ;  the  proclamations 
on  the  walls  as  to  the  new  levy  of  conscripts ;  the  govern- 
mental inspection  of  mineral  baths,  and  the  legal  price  of 
bread  for  the  fortnight ;  at  the  butchers'  shops,  the  labels  on 
the  meat  describing  its  quality,  according  to  the  law ;  the , 
impossibility  of  going  in  and  out  of  my  own  doors  at  any 
hour,  except  with  the  knowledge  of  the  concierge ;  the  thor- 
ough efficiency  of  the  police,  and  the  manner  in  which  every 
person  and  every  locality  seemed  conscious  of  inspection. 

Also,  I  remember  well  the  first  occasion  on  which  I  saw  a 
man  with  whose  appearance  I  became  afterwards  very  fa- 
miliar. This  person  was  a  juggler ;  and  he  stood  just  under 
my  windows,  in  a  comer  of  the  Place  de  la  Madeleine.  It 
was  on  a  Sunday  morning  when  I  first  saw  him  begin  to 
play  with  his  sticks,  balls,  dishes,  and  cups,  and  just  at  the 
moment  when  a  large  congregation  was  descending  the  steps 
of  the  most  beautiful  church  in  the  city.  Afterwards,  I 
noticed  that  every  Sunday,  all  day  long,  in  front  of  this 


PARIS.  57 

church,  did  this  juggler  station  himself,  and  play  his  tricks, 
and  pick  up  his  "  sous,"  surrounded  by  an  attendance  which 
never  failed. 

At  first  too,  the  name  of  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  seemed 
to  me  to  be  very  singular.  Originally,  it  was  the  Place  of 
Louis  the  Fifteenth,  and  afterwards  the  Place  of  the  Revo- 
lution. The  spot  where  once  twelve  hundred  persons  were 
trampled  to  death,  where  occurred  the  collision  which  occa- 
sioned the  attack  on  the  Bastile,  and  where  for  thirty  months 
stood  the  guillotine,  is  now  called  the  Place  of  Concord. 
With  the  changes  of  the  government,  often  the  names  of 
streets  are  changed ;  and  it  would  seem  to  be  quite  common 
here  to  attempt  to  make  words  do  political  service.  Fre- 
quently, on  public  buildings,  are  to  be  seen,  just  beginning 
to  reappear  from  underneath  a  coat  of  coloring,  the  words, 
by  which  it  would  seem  as  though  a  futile  attempt  had  been 
made  to  infect  Paris  with  what  had  not  been  abiding,  — 
"  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity." 

I  will  not  omit  mentioning,  also,  my  novel  sensations  at 
seeing  for  the  first  time  in  the  churches  altars  dedicated  to 
Thomas  Aquinas,  Augustine,  and  other  personages,  for  whom 
I  have  long  had  deep  reverence,  though  it  has  not  been  ac- 
companied with  such  convictions  as  would  prompt  me  to 
invoke  them  on  my  knees. 

Paris,  which  is  peculiarly  the  city  "  des  vweurs,^'  —  of  liv- 
ers, gay  livers,  —  is  also  largely  a  city  of  the  dead ;  a  city  in 
which  so  many  of  the  streets  have  names  which  are  like  his- 
tories, and  in  which  so  many  buildings  are  haunted  by  mem- 
ories and  echo  still  with  voices,  which  long  ago  were  old, 
and  in  which,  every  here  and  there,  are  places  where  it 
seems,  for  awfulness  and  the  sound  in  one's  ears,  as  though 
the  very  stones  were  crying  out.  Yet  these  ancient  remains 
were  formerly  much  more  numerous  thaii  they  are  now,  for 


58  PABIS. 

during  the  first  revolution  innumerable  old  objects  of  inter- 
est were  destroyed,  buildings,  tombs,  and  statues. 

But  I  have  never  known  a  place  where,  even  on  their  own 
ground,  the  past  and  the  present  seem  so  far  apart  as  they 
do  in  this  city.  It  seems  to  me  as  though  the  people  in  the 
streets  were  altogether  disconnected  with  the  antiquities  of 
Paris.  And  certainly  the  humor  in  which  persons  walk  the 
Boulevards  is  not  at  all  the  mood  in  which  to  feel  them- 
selves allied  to  ancient  times. 

The  voices  of  the  past,  even  though  very  distinct,  are  yet 
not  of  a  character  to  be  audible  by  those  who  are  fresh  from 
indulging  at  a  cafd,  or  riding  in  the  Champs  Elys^es,  or  laugh- 
ing in  a  theatre.  But  for  one  who  has  been  quietly  at  home, 
shutting  out  the  noisy  present  from  his  mind  by  the  perusal 
of  some  book,  or  who  has  been  having  his  spiritual  hearing 
quickened  by  meditation,  O  how  the  past  seems  to  linger  on 
the  air,  as  he  walks  in  some  of  the  old  neighborhoods  of  this 
city.  At  one  place,  he  seems  to  hear  the  cries  of  alarm  with 
which  it  was  perceived  by  the  French  that  Jeanne  d'Arc  had 
been  wounded  from  the  walls,  —  the  dauntless,  mysterious 
maid ;  and  at  another  place,  it  is  as  though  there  were  still 
sounding  the  triumphal  acclamations  which  welcomed  Vol- 
taire to  the  house  on  the  quay,  named  now  in  his  honor,  and 
where,  indeed,  he  ended  his  days.  In  one  street,  it  is  as 
though  there  were  to  be  heard  the  shouts  of  the  mob,  as  they 
carried  aloft  the  head  of  Richelieu  from  his  desecrated  tomb 
at  the  Sorbonne ;  and  in  another  neighboring  street,  it  is  as 
though  they  had  not  yet  died  away,  the  yells  with  which 
Charlotte  Corday,  pale  and  calm,  was  dragged  down  stairs 
from  the  apartment  where  Marat  lay  in  his  blood. 

In  some  quarters  of  the  city,  historical  memorials  are 
very  numerous.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Rue  St.  Honor^ 
is  the  house  in  which  Henry  the  Fourth  was  assassinated 


PABIS.  59 

bj  Havaillac ;  and  at  a  little  distance  from  this  house  is  the 
spot  where  Admiral  Ck>ligny  fell  under  a  murderous  attack, 
and  with  him  the  strength  of  the  Protestant  cause ;  and 
again,  adjoining  this  spot  is  the  site  of  the  house  where  the 
Abb^  de  Rauc^  had  that  terrible  experience,  which  sent  him 
from  the  chamber  of  his  mistress  into  the  convent  of  La 
Trappe. 

Bound  the  Sorbonne  is  a  region  in  which  are  many  col- 
leges and  schools,  and  which  is  called  the  Latin  Quarter. 
Mostly  the  streets  in  which  these  buildings  stand  are  nar- 
row and  dingy ;  but  yet  they  are  very  interesting  as  having 
been  the  resorts  of  students  and  professors  so  long;  for  this 
Latin  Quarter  was  crowded  by  thousands  from  all  countries, 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  Paris  was  the  chief  university  of 
Europe,  when  Abelard  lectured  here  on  philosophy,  and 
when  here  Rabelais  studied  medicine,  and  Peter  Lombard 
learned  the  logic  with  which  he  wrought  his  sentences,  and 
when  Dante  and  Petrarch  wrote  of  the  localities  here  as 
though  known  to  the  whole  world. 

Here  and  there,  too,  in  the  city,  is  to  be  found  an  old 
house,  which  is  interesting  from  the  persons  who  have  been 
its  occupants,  such  as  that  which  still  bears  the  name  of 
Sully,  who  escaped  from  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholemew, 
as  a  boy,  to  become  the  incorruptible  Protestant,  and  the 
great  minister  of  Henry  the  Fourth.  Also,  there  are  hotels 
which  may  be  regarded  as  monuments  of  a  past  era  in  so- 
cial life ;  mansions  occupied  once  by  ladies  whose  names  are 
historical,  and  justly  so,  on  account  of  their  social  tact  and 
conversational  ability,  —  such  ladies  as  Mesdames  Longue- 
ville,  Sevignc^,  and  Rambouillet,  in  whose  parlors  resided  a 
power  by  which  even  Louis  the  Great  felt  himself  checked, 
restrained,  and  not  absolute.  And  I  do  not  know  but  that 
some  of  these  residences  are  among  the  pleasantest  remains 


62  FUND  FOR  LIBERAL   CHRISTLAJaTY. 

just  as  in  the  charity  of  Fenelon  there  is  a  spirit  which  per- 
ceptibly is  of  France,  and  not  of  England  or  Germany. 

But  yet  also  this  is  a  place  where  the  son  has  been  taught 
by  his  father ;  a  city  in  which  not  buildings  only  have  been 
inherited  from  the  past,  but  also  old  divisions  and  con- 
flicting opinions,  and  certain  mental  tendencies.  Yes,  Paris 
is  a  city  very  stately  and  highly  embellished,  and,  in  all  those 
ways  of  which  policemen  can  take  cognizance,  it  is  most 
orderly.  But  yet,  also,  resting  as  it  does  on  a  moral  vol- 
cano, it  is  liable  any  moment  to  be  convulsed  by  forces  from 
beneath,  as  though  by  an  earthquake. 


FUND  FOR  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

For  two  years  information  has  annually  been  communi- 
cated to  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  concerning  the 
working  of  the  Fund  for  Liberal  Christlajs^ity.  As, 
however,  some  Unitarians  may  not  even  know  the  origin  of 
the  Fund,  or  might  like  to  see  a  general  statement  of  its 
operations  from  the  beginning,  I  send  the  following  ac- 
count for  the  Quarterly  Journal. 

In  February  of  the  year  1854,  an  individual,  who  wishes 
while  alive  to  remain  unknown,  placed  five  thousand  dollars 
in  charge  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Meadville  Theological 
School,  and  an  equal  amount  in  August  of  the  same  year, 
for  the  four  following  objects :  — 

1st.  "  To  aid  Western  ministers  whose  salaries  are  inadequate 
to  their  support,  in  doing  which  the  administrators  of  the  Fund 
are  to  lay  it  down  as  a  rule,  whence  they  are  only  to  depart  in  very 
urgent  cases,  and  where  there  is  a  good  degree  of  unanimity 


FUND   FOB  LIBEBAX   CHBISTIANITT.  63 

among  themselves,  that  the  aid  thus  extended  to  any  one  society 
shall,  if  continued,  decrease  each  year  in  a  fixed  ratio  of  at  least 
one  fourth  of  the  original  amount  given  or  loaned." 

2d.  "  To  improve  the  libraries  of  ministers  by  a  loan  or  gift  of 
books." 

3d.  "  To  aid  libraries  which  may  be  formed  by  associations  of 
Western  ministers,  such  aid  not  to  exceed  the  amount  contributed 
or  otherwise  procured  by  the  ministers  themselves." 

4th.  *'  To  aid  parishes  in  forming  or  increasing  permanent  min- 
isterial libraries  for  the  benefit  of  their  pastors,  which  aid  to  any 
parish  is  nojt  to  exceed  the  amount  raised  by  it." 

These  ten  thousand  dollars  were  invested  on  abundant 
security  at  ten  per  cent  Three  years'  interest  has  been 
received  on  the  first  half  of  the  donation,  and  two  years 
and  six  months'  interest  on  the  second,  making  in  all  $  2750. 
Out  of  this,  $  25  were  set  aside  for  contingent  expenses,  of 
which  a  trifle  is  still  on  hand ;  $  400  have  been  contributed 
to  the  salaries  of  two  ministers,  in  Ohio  and  Illinois  ;  four 
permanent  ministerial  libraries  have  been  instituted  for  soci- 
eties in  Michigan  and  Illinois,  at  a  cost  of  $100  to  the  Fund, 
and  $100  to  the  societies,  and  eighty-nine  ministers  of  three 
different  liberal  denominations  have  been  supplied  with  li- 
braries, at  a  cost  of  $2,225.  These  ministers,  except  some 
who  may  have  changed  their  location,  reside  in  New  York, 
Peimsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wis- 
consin. The  number  of  volumes  furnished  to  this  date  is 
more  than  four  thousand,  comprising  our  best  Unitarian 
publications,  and  such  selections  of  standard  theology  as 
were  deemed  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  recipients.  Mil- 
man's  Gibbon,  also,  is  in  nearly  every  library,  and  one  or 
two  good  devotional  works  are  constantly  included.  All 
these  libraries,  varying  in  size  from  thirty  to  fifty  volumes, 
have  been  labelled,  and  a  record  kept  of  every  book  in  each 
library.  More  than  a  ton  of  books  is  annually  thus  distrib- 
uted by  the  Fund. 


62  FUND   FOR   LIBERAL    CHRISTIANITY. 

just  as  in  the  charity  of  Fenelon  there  is  a  spirit  which  per- 
ceptibly is  of  France,  and  not  of  England  or  Germany. 

But  yet  also  this  is  a  place  where  the  son  has  been  taught 
by  his  father ;  a  city  in  which  not  buildings  only  have  been 
inherited  from  the  past,  but  also  old  divisions  and  con- 
flicting opinions,  and  certain  mental  tendencies.  Yes,  Paris 
is  a  city  very  stately  and  highly  embellished,  and,  in  all  those 
ways  of  which  policemen  can  take  cognizance,  it  is  most 
orderly.  But  yet,  also,  resting  as  it  does  on  a  moral  vol- 
cano, it  is  liable  any  moment  to  be  convulsed  by  forces  from 
beneath,  as  though  by  an  earthquake. 


FUND  FOR  LIBERAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

For  two  years  information  has  annually  been  communi- 
cated to  the  Western  Unitarian  Conference  concerning  the 
working  of  the  Fund  for  Liberal  Christianity.  As, 
however,  some  Unitarians  may  not  even  know  the  origin  of 
the  Fund,  or  might  like  to  see  a  general  statement  of  its 
operations  from  the  beginning,  I  send  the  following  ac- 
count for  the  Quarterly  Journal. 

In  February  of  the  year  1854,  an  individual,  who  wishes 
while  alive  to  remain  unknown,  placed  five  thousand  dollars 
in  charge  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Meadville  Theological 
School,  and  an  equal  amount  in  August  of  the  same  year, 
for  the  four  following  objects :  — 

^Ist.  "To  aid  Western  ministers  whose  salaries  are  inadequate 
to  their  support,  in  doing  which  the  administrators  of  the  Fund 
are  to  lay  it  down  as  a  rule,  whence  they  are  only  to  depart  in  very 
urgent  cases,  and  where  there  is  a  good  degree  of  unanimity 


FUND  FOB  LIBEBAX  GHBISTIANITT.  63 

among  themselves,  that  the  aid  thus  extended  to  any  one  society 
shaU,  if  continued,  decrease  each  year  in  a  fixed  ratio  of  at  least 
one  fourth  of  the  original  amount  given  or  loaned." 

2d.  "  To  improve  the  libraries  of  ministers  by  a  loan  or  gift  of 
books." 

3d.  "  To  aid  libraries  which  may  be  formed  by  associations  of 
Western  ministers,  such  aid  not  to  exceed  the  amount  contributed 
or  otherwise  procured  by  the  ministers  themselves." 

4th.  ''To  aid  parishes  in  forming  or  increasing  permanent  min- 
isterial libraries  for  the  benefit  of  their  pastors,  which  aid  to  any 
parish  is  nojt  to  exceed  the  amount  raised  by  it" 

These  ten  thousand  dollars  were  invested  on  abundant 
security  at  ten  per  cent.  Three  years'  interest  has  been 
received  on  the  first  half  of  the  donation,  and  two  years 
and  six  months'  interest  on  the  second,  making  in  all  $  27o0. 
Out  of  this,  $  25  were  set  aside  for  contingent  expenses,  of 
which  a  trifle  is  still  on  hand ;  $  400  have  been  contributed 
to  the  salaries  of  two  ministers,  in  Ohio  and  Illinois ;  four 
permanent  ministerial  libraries  have  been  instituted  for  soci- 
eties in  Michigan  and  Illinois,  at  a  cost  of  $100  to  the  Fund, 
and  $100  to  the  societies,  and  eighty-nine  ministers  of  three 
different  liberal  denominations  have  been  supplied  with  li- 
braries, at  a  cost  of  $  2,225.  These  ministers,  except  some 
who  may  have  changed  their  location,  reside  in  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Blinois,  and  Wis- 
consin. The  number  of  volumes  furnished  to  this  date  is 
more  than  four  thousand,  comprising  our  best  Unitarian 
publications,  and  such  selections  of  standard  theology  as 
were  deemed  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  recipients.  Mil- 
man's  Gibbon,  also,  is  in  nearly  every  library,  and  one  or 
two  good  devotional  works  are  constantly  included.  All 
these  libraries,  varying  in  size  from  thirty  to  fifty  volumes, 
have  been  labelled,  and  a  record  kept  of  every  book  in  each 
library.  More  than  a  ton  of  books  is  annually  thus  distrib- 
uted by  the  Fund. 


64  FUND   FOB  LIBERAL   CHBISTIANITT. 

The  contingent  expenses  at  present  comprise  merely  a 
small  compensation  to  the  agent  who  collects  the  interest  in 
the  city  where  the  Fund  is  invested.  The  selection  of 
books,  recording,  and  general  superintendence  are  gratui- 
tous. The  cost  of  blanks,  labelling,  boxing,,  etc.,  is  borne 
by  the  recipients. 

There  are,  of  course,  some  difficulties  in  the  practical 
workings  of  the  Fund.  Occasionally,  a  volume  of  a  set  has 
been  erroneously  numbered  by  the  bookbinder,  and  an  im- 
perfect work  has  thus  been  sent  some  hundred  miles,  where 
it  is  no  easy  matter  to  remedy  the  deficiency.  The  labor  of 
inquiry,  also,  concerning  persons  applying  or  recommended 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Fund,  is  sometimes  not  smalL  Yet 
its  management  has  been  so  systematized  as  not  to  be  bur- 
densome, and  its  operation,  in  many  instances  at  least,  is,  so 
far  as  we  have  the  means  of  judging,  exceedingly  beneficial. 
On  this  point,  the  following  extracts  from  letters  written  by 
recipients  of  libraries  may  give  some  light  to  the  reader. 

^^ Albion,  Mich.y  June  18,  1855. 

" I  have  long  desired  to  possess  some  of  the  works 

mentioned  in  your  schedule.  They  cannot  be  obtained  from  book- 
stores  here.  My  yearly  expenses  in  circulating  books  and  tracts 
are  greater  than  the  amount  received  for  my  labors.  I  hope  to  be 
better  prepared  to  So  good  afler  their  perusal. 

"  Permit  me  here  to  express  my  gratitude  to  Unitarian  brethren 
for  the  benefit  I  have  received  from  their  published  works,  such  as 
Drs.  Channing,  Dewey,  Ware,  Burnap,  and  others  whose  works 
I  have  chanced  to  obtain  from  colporteurs,  although  I  have  very 
few  of  them  in  my  possession  at  this  time,  having  loaned  them  in 
the  various  districts  of  our  new  State,  where  I  trust  they  are  do- 
ing good. 

"  Not  long  since,  calling  upon  one  of  our  senator  fanners,  after 
some  time  conversing  on  religious  topics,  answering  his  objections 
to  Christianity  on  account  of  sectarianism,  etc.,  I  left  him  a  copy 


FUND  FOB  LIBERAL    CHISTLAiaTY.  65 

of  Unitarian  Views,  published  by  direction  of  the  Western  Unita- 
rian Conference.  Some  two  weeks  after,  calling  again,  I  was  met 
with  a  smile,  while  he  remarked,  could  such  works  be  placed  in 
every  family,  much  good  would  be  effected  in  removing  many 
objections  to  religion,  by  showing  the  difference  between  the  truths 
of  the  Bible  and  the  fancy  of  man." 

'^Hampdetij  Ohio,  Od.  18,  1855. 
"  I  have  just  received  yours  of  October  9th,  and  truly,  if  ever  I 
thought  I  had  an  angePs  visit,  it  is  now.    I  have  never  had  an 
opportunity  of  getting  many  books,  that  is,  many  of  the  right 
stamp ;  hence  I  hail  the  present  as  a  new  era  in  my  history." 

''Lakeville,  N,  Y,,  July  26,  1855. 

"  I  suppose  that  you  have  received  an  expression  of  thanks  for 
the  valuable  present  of  books  that  you  sent  to  young  ministers  in 
this  section,  as  one  was  written  at  the  Central  Conference,  which 

was  signed  by  each  of  us,  and  left  with  Brother to  forward 

to  you.  I  will  in  addition  to  that  say,  that  since  the  books  have 
been  received  by  me,  I  have  many  times,  while  perusing  them, 
experienced  feelings  of  deep  gratitude  to  yourself  and  the  donor, 
or  donors,  who  established  the  *  Fund  for  Liberal  Christianity.' 
Receive  this,  therefore,  as  another  feeble  expression  of  my  grati- 
tude for  this  valuable  gift.  I  felt  much  the  need  of  those  very 
works,  and  of  that  kind.  Permit  me  to  say,  that  Channing's 
Woiks  I  had  before,  but  have  now  availed  myself  of  an  opportunity 
to  make  a  present  of  the  copy  I  before  had  to  a  worthy  young 
brother  in  the  ministry." 

**  Monroe,  Wis.,  June  28,  1855. 

** With  regard  to  your  very  choice  donation,  you  will 

please  accept  my  warmest  thanks,  as  nothing  could  be  more  op- 
portune and  well  chosen." 

^'Pleasant  Grove,  Min,  T.,  July  22,  1856. 
"  I  received,  one  year  ago,  from  the  Trustees  of  the  Meadville 
Theological  School,  an  appropriation  of  books,  and  it  appears  no 
more  than  proper  that  I  should  let  you  know  how  I  am  profiting 

by  them 

6* 


66  FUND   FOB  LIBEBAL   CHBISTIAKITT. 

'*  Those  books,  and  especially  the  writings  of  Dr.  Channing, 
have  been  of  incalculable  value  to  me.  Never,  until  I  read  his 
writings,  did  I  have  anything  like  proper  ideas  of  God  or  man. 
While  I  applied  the  term  *  Father '  to  God,  I  had  little  idea  of 
that  grand  and  consoling  idea  of  a  father  as  exhibited  in  the  char- 
acter of  God,  and  I  had  too  much  overlooked  that  germ  of  immor- 
tality in  man,  which  alone  is  sufficient  to  command  our  respect, 
and  inspire  us  with  awe  and  a  deep  sense  of  the  vast  responsibility 
we  take  upon  ourselves  when  we  attempt  to  guide  that  immortality 
to  its  true  sphere  of  action  and  enjoyment.  Indeed,  I  can  only  say, 
with  gratitude,  that,  since  receiving  the  ideas  of  that  truly  great 
mind,  my  own  mind  has  moved  in  another  sphere.  But  my  thanks 
are  not  due  for  his  writings  alone  ;  the  others  have  been  of  great 
value  to  me. 

"  Not  only  for  myself  alone  are  thanks  due,  but  for  others  also. 
These  works  have  been  generally  well  received,  and  many  who 
have  read  them  like  them  much.  I  think  much  good  might  be 
done  by  the  circulation  of  Channing's  Works  here,  and  if  you  deem 
it  proper,  I  am  willing  to  put  forth  such  efforts  as  I  can  for  such 
an  object" 

''Eaton,  Ohio,  May  26, 1856. 

"  I  have  just  received  your  favor  of  May  14th,  and  thank  you 
and  the  Association  kindly  for  their  donation  to  me.  I  receive  no 
present  with  so  much  satisfaction  as  I  do  good  books,  and  I  spend 
money  in  the  purchase  of  them  the  most  willingly  of  any  way. 
I  have  not  attended  school  since  I  was  a  child  of  eleven  yeais  of 
age,  and  did  not  care  anything  for  education  until  I  had  seen  nine- 
teen summers.  I  then  was  poor,  and  had  no  one  to  assist  me,  and 
being  the  eldest  son  of  my  father's  family,  I  had  to  work.  At  the 
age  of  nineteen,  I  professed  religion,  and  have  been  trying  ever 
since  to  obtain  some  knowldge.  I  have  added  a  few  books  to  my 
library  each  year,  as  I  felt  I  could  spare  from  my  small  income, 
until  the  number  is  now  three  hundred  volumes." 

''Warrensville,  Fa.,  Nov,  26,  1856. 
" You  will  please  accept  my  thanks  for  the  favor  re- 
ceived  I  will  only  add,  that  I  was  very  much  in  need  of 

books,  and  knew  not  how  nor  where  to  get  them." 


FUND   FOB  LIBEBAL   CHBISTIANITY.  67 

'^Blackberry  Station^  III,  June  3,  1856. 

**  The  box  of  books  has  come  safely  to  hand  at  last,  and  I  am 
broaght  under  deep  and  lasting  obligations  to  yourself  and  oth- 
ers for  this  memento  of  their  affection  to  me  and  to  our  com- 
mon cause.  Be  assured  that  I  shall  use  those  books,  and  use  them 
to  my  advantage.  Many  of  them  are  books  which  I  have  long  felt 
the  need  of,  and  which  I  had  not  the  means  at  my  disposal  to  pur- 
chase. 

*<  The  books  are  a  valuable  addition  to  my  meagre  library ;  in 
fact,  they  comprise  the  largest  half  of  it. 

'*It  seems  to  me  that  the  prices  set  against  the  respective 
works  in  the  list  are  very  low.    Are  they  the  wholesale  or  retail 

prices? " 

[''Oxford,  N,  F.,  May  5,  1857. 

" The  volume  you  sent  [Martineau's  Discourses]  was 

the  first  volume  of  the  box  that  I  read,  and  I  assure  you  I  found  in 
it  a  literary  feast.  I  have  read  it  twice  carefully,  and  pronounce 
it  decidedly  the  best  volume  of  sermons  that  I  have  ever  seen. 
I  would  not  hesitate  to  pay  double  the  price  of  the  other  volume, 
if  I  could  obtain  it.  I  am  just  finishing  Channing's  second 
volume.  I  find  there  too  a  depth  of  thought.  I  have  glanced  at 
Dewey's  Works,  and  anticipate  in  reading  them  another  rich  treat. 

"  I  cannot  refrain  from  thanking  you  again  for  your  kindness  in 
adding  to  my  library  so  rich  a  store  of  books,  which  my  limited 
means  would  not  permit  me  at  present  to  procure." 

''Coojperstown,  N.  F.,  May  20,  1857. 

'* Be  assured  the  books  will  not  lie  idly  upon  my 

shelves.  They  comprise  some  which  I  have  long  yearned  to 
possess,  in  the  only  true  sense  of  possession,  —  that  of  mental  di- 
gestion. 

" Particularly  have  I  ever  held  in  high  esteem  the  Uni- 
tarian branch  of  the  Christian  Church,  for  holding  prominently 
before  the  world  the  idea  of  the  dignity  and  sacredness  of 
man " 

Further  extracts  or  details  as  to  the  operations  of  the 
Fund  might,  perhaps,  interest  some  readers,  but  the  major* 


68  FUND   FOB  LIBERAL   OHBISTIANITY. 

ity  will  probably  prefer  to  receive  such  information  in  a 
brief  shape.  While  they  read  this  conununication,  the  Fund 
will  be  distributing  another  half-year's  income.  Hitherto 
the  number  of  societies  which  have  applied  for  aid  in  the 
formation  of  "  Permanent  Ministerial  Libraries "  has  been 
small.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  gradually  become 
more  familiarized  with  the  idea  of  establishing  such  libra- 
ries, since  in  this  way  the  appropriations  of  the  Fund  will 
effect  at  least  twice  as  much,  the  societies  will  become  more 
interested  in  the  mental  wants  of  their  pastors,  and  a  minis- 
ter, instead  of  having  to  carry  a  library  from  place  to  placcj 
which  is  expensive,  troublesome,  and  often  injurious  to  the 
books,  will  find  at  least  such  books  as  he  most  needs  in  every 
parish. 

I  had  thought  of  adding  some  remarks  on  the  deep  ap- 
preciation of  Unitarian  literature,  and  heartfelt  expp^sions 
of  gratitude  for  the  opportunity  of  its  perusal,  whidi  {have 
found  among  the  Orthodox,  both  ministers  and  laity.  J 
hoped  that  such  a  communication  might  lead  some  among 
ourselves  to  a  better  appreciation  of  the  worth  which  our 
literature  has  for  those  to  whom  it  is  new,  and  lead  them  in 
consequence  to  distribute  the  same  more  freely  in  direclicms 
where  no  thought  of  controversy  should  have  a  place.  But 
I  found  that  it  would  occasion  too  wide  a  digression  &om 
the  subject  of  my  report,  and  I  hesitated,  also,  to  draw  on 
my  private  correspondence  for  heart-felt  utterances  which 
had  not  been  intended  for  publication. 

The  need  of  our  books  at  the  West  is,  as  yet,  far  greater 
than  the  supply.  There  is  not  only  ample  room  for  exer- 
tion among  Western  men  in  their  distribution,  but  abun- 
dant opportunity  for  a  judicious  application  of  whatever 
our  Eastern  friends  may  wish  to  appropriate  to  such  a 
purpose. 

F.    HUIDEKOPER. 


A   WELL-6B0UNDED   HOPE.  69 


A  WELL-GROUNDED  HOPE,  AND  NOT  INFAL- 
LIBLE CERTAINTY,  THE  OBJECT  AIMED  AT 
BY  DIVINE  REVELATION. 

BY  ARCHBISHOP  WHATELY. 

In  human  nature  there  is  no  more  powerful  principle  than 
a  craving  for  in&Uibilitj  in  religious  matters.  To  examine 
and  re-examine,  —  to  reason  and  reflect, — to  hesitate,  and 
to  decide  with  caution,  —  to  be  always  open  to  evidence, — 
and  to  acknowledge  that,  after  all,  we  are  liable  to  error ;  — 
all  this  is,  on  many  accounts,  unacceptable  to  the  human 
mind,  —  both  to  its  diffidence  and  to  its  pride,  to  its  indo- 
lence, its  dread  of  anxious  cares,  and  to  its  love  of  self-sat- 
isfied and  confident  repose.  And  hence  there  is  a  strong 
prejudice  in  favor  of  any  system  which  promises  to  put  an 
end  to  the  work  of  inquiring,  at  once  and  for  ever,  and  to 
relieve  us  from  all  embarrassing  doubt  and  uncomfortable 
distrust.  Consequently,  this  craving  for  infallibility  predis- 
poses men  towards  the  pretensions,  either  of  a  supposed  un- 
erring Church,  or  of  those  who  claim  or  who  promise 
immediate  inspiration.  And  this  promise  of  infallible  guid- 
ance not  only  meets  man's  wishes,  but  his  conjectures  also. 
When  we  give  the  reins  to  our  own  feelings  and  fancies, 
such  a  provision  appears  as  probable  as  it  is  desirable.  If, 
antecedently  to  the  distinct  announcement  of  any  particular 
revelation,  men  were  asked  what  kind  of  revelation  they 
would  wish  to  obtain,  and,  again,  what  kind  of  revelation 
they  would  think  it  the  most  reasonable  and  probable  that 
God  should  bestow,  they  would  be  likely  to  answer  both 
questions  by  saying,  "  Such  a  revelation  as  should  provide 
some  infallible  guide  on  earth,  readily  accessible  to  every 


70  A  WELL-GBOVNDED   HOFB. 

man ;  so  that  no  one  could  possibly  be  in  doubt,  on  any 
point,  as  to  what  he  was  required  to  believe  and  to  do ;  but 
should  be  placed,  as  it  were,  on  a  kind  of  plain  high-road, 
which  he  would  only  have  to  follow  steadily,  without  taking 
any  care  to  look  around  him ;  or,  rather,  in  some  kind  of 
vehicle  on  such  a  road,  in  which  he  would  be  safely  carried 
to  his  journey's  end,  even  though  asleep,  provided  he  never 
quitted  that  vehicle.  For,"  a  man  might  say,  "  if  a  book  is 
put  into  my  hands  containing  a  divine  revelation,  and  in 
which  are  passages  that  may  be  differently  understood  by 
different  persons,  —  even  by  those  of  learning  and  ability,  — 
even  by  men  professing  each  to  have  earnestly  prayed  for 
spiritual  guidance  towards  the  right  interpretation  thereof, 
—  and  if,  moreover,  this  book  contains,  in  respect  of  some 
points  of  belief  and  of  conduct,  no  directions  at  all,  —  then 
there  is  a  manifest  necessity  that  I  should  be  provided  with 
an  infallible  interpreter  of  this  book,  who  shall  be  always 
at  hand  to  be  consulted,  and  ready  to  teach  me,  without  the 
possibility  of  mistake,  the  right  meaning  of  every  passage, 
and  to  supply  all  deficiencies  and  omissions  in  the  book 
itself.  For,  otherwise,  this  revelation  is,  to  me,  no  revela- 
tion at  all.  Though  the  book  itself  be  perfectly  free  fiom 
all  admixture  of  error,  —  though  all  that  it  asserts  be  trae, 
and  aU  its  directions  right,  —  still  it  is  no  guide  for  me,  unless 
I  have  an  infallible  certainty,  on  each  point,  what  its  asser- 
tions and  directions  are.  It  is  in  vain  to  teU  me  that  the 
pole-star  is  always  fixed  in  the  north ;  I  cannot  steer  my 
course  by  it  when  it  is  obscured  by  clouds,  so  that  I  cannot 
be  certain  where  that  star  is*  I  need  a  compass  to  steer  by, 
which  I  can  consult  at  all  times.  There  is,  therefore,  a 
manifest  necessity  for  an  infallible  and  universally  accessible 
interpreter  on  earth,  as  an  indispensable  accompaniment  — 
and  indeed  essential  part — of  any  divine  revelation." 


A  WELL-GBOUNDED  HOPE.  71 

Such  would  be  the  reasonings,  and  such  the  feelmgs,  of  a 
man  left  to  himself  to  consider  what  sort  of  revelation  from 
Heaven  would  be  the  most  acceptable,  and  also  the  most 
probable,  —  the  most  adapted  to  meet  his  wishes  and  his 
wants.  And  thus  are  men  predisposed,  both  by  their  feel- 
ings and  their  antecedent  conjectures,  towards  the  admission 
of  such  pretensions  as  have  been  alluded  to. 

And  it  may  be  added,  that  any  one  who  is  thus  induced 
to  give  himself  up  implicitly  to  the  guidance  of  such  a  sup- 
posed infallible  authority,  without  presuming  thenceforth  to 
exercise  his  own  judgment  on  any  point  relative  to  religion, 
or  to  think  for  himself  at  all  on  such  matters,  —  such  a  one 
will  be  likely  to  regard  this  procedure  as  the  very  perfection 
of  pious  humility, — as  a  most  reverent  observance  of  the 
rule  of  "  lean  not  to  thine  own  understanding  " ;  though  in 
reality  it  is  the  very  error  of  improperly  leaning  to  our  own 
understanding.  For,  to  resolve  to  believe  that  God  must 
have  dealt  with  mankind  just  in  the  way  that  we  could  wish 
as  the  most  desirable,  and  in  the  way  that  to  us  seems  the 
most  probable,  —  this  is,  in  fact,  to  set  up  ourselves  as  his 
judges.  It  is  to  dictate  to  Him,  in  the  spirit  of  Naaman, 
who  thought  that  the  prophet  would  recover  him  by  a 
touch ;  and  who  chose  to  be  healed  by  the  waters  of  Abana 
and  Pharpar,  the  rivers  of  Damascus,  which  he  deemed 
better  than  all  the  waters  of  Israel. 

But  anything  that  falls  in  at  once  with  men's  wishes,  and 
with  their  conjectures,  and  which  also  presents  itself  to 
them  in  the  guise  of  a  virtuous  humility,  —  this  they  are 
often  found  readily  and  firmly  to  believe,  not  only  without 
evidence,  but  against  all  evidence. 

And  thus  it  is  in  the  present  case.  The  principle  that 
every  revelation  from  Heaven  necessarily  requires,  as  an 
indispensable  accompaniment,  an  infallible  interpreter  always 


72  A   WELL-GBOUNDED   HOPE." 

at  hand,  —  this  principle  clings  so  strongly  to  the  minds  of 
many  men,  that  they  are  even  found  still  to  maintain  it 
after  they  have  ceased  to  believe  in  any  revelation  at  all,  or 
even  in  the  existence  of  a  God. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  fact,  that  very  great  num- 
bers of  men  are  to  be  found,  not  deficient  in  intelligence, 
nor  altogether  strangers  to  reflection,  who,  while  they  for 
the  most  part  conform  externally  to  the  prevailing  religion, 
are  inwardly  utter  unbelievers  in  Christianity ;  yet  still  hold 
to  the  principle,  —  which,  in  fact,  has  had  the  chief  share  in 
making  them  unbelievers,  —  that  the  idea  of  a  divine  reve- 
lation implies  that  of  a  universally  accessible,  infallible  in- 
terpreter ;  and  that  the  one  without  the  other  is  an  absurd- 
ity and  contradiction. 

And  this  principle  it  is  that  has  mainly  contributed  to 
make  these  men  unbelievers.  For  when  a  tolerably  intelli- 
gent and  reflective  man  has  fuUy  satisfied  himself  that  in 
point  of  fact  no  such  provision  has  been  made,  —  that  no 
infallible  and  universally  accessible  interpreter  does  exist  on 
earth  (and  this  is  a  conclusion  which  even  the  veiy  words  of 
Paul,  in  his  discourse  at  Miletus  (Acts  xx.),  would  be  alone 
fully  sufficient  to  establish),  —  when  he  has  satisfied  himself 
of  the  non-existence  of  this  interpreter,  yet  still  adheres  to 
the  principle  of  its  supposed  necessity,  the  consequence  is 
inevitable,  that  he  will  at  once  reject  all  belief  of  Christian- 
ity. The  ideas  of  a  revelation,  and  of  an  unerring  inter- 
preter, being,  in  his  mind,  inseparably  conjoined,  the  over- 
throw of  the  one  belief  cannot  but  carry  the  other  along 
with  it.  Such  a  person,  therefore,  will  be  apt  to  think  it 
not  worth  while  to  examine  the  reasons  in  favor  of  any 
other  form  of  Christianity,  not  pretending  to  furnish  an  in- 
fallible interpreter.  This  —  which,  he  is  fully  convinced,  is 
essential  to  a  revelation  from  Heaven — is,  by  some  churches. 


A   WELL-GROUNDED    HOPE.  73 

claimed,  bat  not  established,  while  the  rest  do  not  even  claim 
it.  The  pretensions  of  the  one  he  has  listened  to,  and  delib- 
erately rejected  ;  those  of  the  other  he  regards  as  not  even 
worth  listening  to. 

The  system,  then,  of  reasoning  from  our  own  conjectures 
as  to  the  necessity  of  the  Most  High  doing  so  and  so,  tends 
to  lead  a  man  to  proceed  from  the  rejection  of  his  own  form 
of  Christianity  to  a  rejection  of  revelation  altogether.  But 
does  it  stop  here  ?  Does  not  the  same  system  lead  naturally 
to  Atheism  also  ?  Experience  shows  that  that  consequence, 
which  reason  might  have  anticipated,  does  often  actually 
take  place.  He  who  gives  the  reins  to  his  own  conjectures 
as  to  what  is  necessary,  and  thence  draws  his  conclusions, 
will  be  likely  to  find  a  necessity  for  such  divine  interference 
in  the  a&irs  of  the  world  as  does  not  in  fact  take  place. 
He  will  deem  it  no  less  than  necessary,  that  an  omnipotent 
and  all-wise  and  beneficent  Being  should  interfere  to  rescue 
the  oppressed  fix)m  the  oppressor,  —  the  corrupted  from  the 
corrupter,  —  to  deliver  men  from  such  temptations  to  evil  as 
it  is  morally  impossible  they  should  withstand;  —  and,  in 
short,  to  banish  evil  from  the  universe.  And,  since  this  is 
not  done,  he  draws  the  inference  that  there  cannot  possibly 
be  a  God,  and  that  to  believe  otherwise  is  a  gross  absurdity. 
Such  a  belief  he  may,  indeed,  consider  as  useful  for  keeping 
up  a  wholesome  awe  in  the  minds  of  the  vulgar ;  and  for 
their  sakes  he  may  outwardly  profess  Christiamty  also; 
even  as  the  heathen  philosophers  of  old  endeavored  to  keep 
up  the  popular  superstitions ;  but  a  real  belief  he  will  regard 
as  something  impossible  to  an  intelligent  and  reflective  mind. 

It  is  not  meant  that  all,  or  the  greater  part,  of  those  who 
maintain  the  principle  here  spoken  of,  are  Atheists.  We  all 
know  how  common  it  is  for  men  to  fail  of  carrying  out  some 
principle  (whether  good  or  bad)  which  they  have  adopted ; 

VOL.  V.  NO.  L  7 


74  A   WELL-GROUNDED   HOPE. 

—  how  common,  to  maintain  the  premises,  and  not  perceive 
the  conclusion  to  which  they  lead.  But  the  tendency  of  the 
principle  itself  is  what  is  here  pointed  out :  and  the  danger 
is  anything  but  imaginary,  of  its  leading,  in  fact,  as  it  does 
naturally  and  consistently,  to  Atheism  as  its  ultimate  result. 

But  surely,  the  Atheist  is  not  hereby  excused.  To  reject 
or  undervalue  the  revelation  God  has  bestowed,  urging  that 
it  is  no  revelation  to  us,  or  an  insufficient  one,  because  un- 
erring certainty  is  not  bestowed  also,  —  because  we  are  re- 
quired to  exercise  patient  diligence,  and  watchfulness,  and 
candor,  and  humble  self-distrust, — this  would  be  as  unrea- 
sonable as  to  disparage  and  reject  the  bountiful  gift  of  eye- 
sight, because  men's  eyes  have  sometimes  deceived  them,  — 
because  men  have  mistaken  a  picture  for  the  object  imitated, 
or  a  mirage  of  the  desert  for  a  lake ;  and  have  fancied  they 
had  the  evidence  of  sight  for  the  sun's  motion ;  and  to  infer 
from  all  this  that  we  ought  to  blindfold  ourselves,  and  be  led 
henceforth  by  some  guide  who  pretends  to  be  himself  not 
liable  to  such  deceptions. 

Let  no  one  fear  that,  by  forbearing  to  forestall  the  judg- 
ment of  the  last  day,  —  by  not  presuming  to  dictate  to  the 
Most  High,  and  boldly  to  pronounce  in  what  way  He  must 
have  imparted  a  revelation  to  man,  —  by  renouncing  all 
pretensions  to  infallibility,  whether  an  immediate  and  per- 
sonal, or  a  derived  infallibility,  —  by  owning  themselves  to 
be  neither  impeccable  nor  infallible  (both  claims  are  alike 
groundless),  and  by  consenting  to  undergo  those  trials  of 
vigilance  and  of  patience  which  God  has  appointed  for 
them,  —  let  them  not  fear  that  by  this  they  will  forfeit  all 
cheerful  hope  of  final  salvation, —  all  "joy  and  peace  in 
believing."  The  reverse  of  all  this  is  the  reality.  While 
such  Christians  as  have  sought  rather  for  peace  —  for  men- 
tal tranquillity  and  satisfaction  —  than  for  truth,  will  often 


OITB  FIFTH  VOLUME.  75 

fail  of  both  truth  and  peace,  those  of  the  opposite  disposi- 
tion are  more  likelj  to  attain  both  from  their  gracious  Mas- 
ter.  He  has  taught  us  '^  to  take  heed  that  we  be  not  de- 
ceived," and  to  '^  beware  g(  false  prophets " ;  and  He  has 
promised  us  his  own  peace  and  heavenly  comfoit.  He  has 
bid  us  watoh  and  pray;  Hie  has  taught  us,  through  his 
blessed  Apostle,  to  ^  take  heed  to  ourselves,**  and  to  ^  work 
out  our  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling";  and  He  has  de- 
dared,  through  the  same  Apostle,  that  ^He  worketh  in  us"; 
He  has  bid  us  iej<Hoe  in  hope ;  He  has  promised  that  He 
^^  will  not  suffesr  us  to  be  tempted  above  what  we  are  able  to 
bear'*;  and  He  has  taught  us  to  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  we  shall  no  longer  ^^see  as  bj  means  <^  a  mirror, 
darkly,  but  &ce  to  face  " ; — when  we  shall  know  ^^  not  in 
part,  but  even  as  we  are  known**; — when  fidth  shall  be 
succeeded  by  certainty,  and  hope  be  ripened  into  enjoyment. 
His  precepts  and  his  promises  go  together.  His  support 
and  comfort  are  giv^n  to  those  who  seek  for;  them  in  the 
way  He  has  himself  appointed* 


OUR    FIFTH    VOLUME. 

The  first  number  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  was  issued 
in  October,  1853.  The  work  has  consequently  been  con- 
tinued for  four  years,  making  sixteen  numbers,  which  are 
four  volumes.  With  this  number  we  enter  upon  our  fifth 
volume.  We  may  take  occasion,  therefore,  at  this  point, 
to  offer  a  few  words  to  our  readers  in  r^ard  to  our  situa- 
tion and  wishes. 


76  OUB  FIFTH  VOLUME. 

The  publication  of  the  Journal  was  undertaken  as  an 
experiment,  as  it  was  believed  that  a  small  periodical,  filled 
with  short  articles,  some  of  which  should  report  the  action 
of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Association,  and  contain 
extracts  from  the  correspondence  of  the  Secretary,  would 
acceptably  take  the  place  of  the  monthly  issue  of  Tracts. 
Our  humble  magazine  received  a  welcome  far  more  cordial 
than  was  anticipated,  and  quite  beyond  its  deserts.  Many 
imperfections  necessarily  attending  a  new  enterprise  of  this 
kind,  started  without  the  advantage  of  any  previous  expe- 
rience, have  been  kindly  overlooked,  in  the  hope,  doubtless, 
which  we  trust  wUl  be  realized,  that  time  will  correct  mis- 
takes and  supply  defects.  We  enter  upon  a  new  volume 
with  the  conviction  that  the  Journal  will  hereafter  be  moi^e 
worthy  of  the  patronage  of  its  friends. 

We  print  seven  thousand  copies.  These  are  sent  to  the 
following  persons :  — 

1.  To  all  life-members.  Of  these  there  are  between  sax 
and  seven  hundred.  They  receive  the  Journal  and  Tear- 
Book  gratuitously.  By  a  payment  of  thirty  dollars,  either 
at  one  time,  or  by  five  annual  instalments  of  six  dollars  each, 
any  person  may  become  a  Hfe-member,  and  will  thereafter 
receive  all  the  periodical  publications  of  the  Association 
free  of  charge.  We  are  glad  to  add,  that  we  continue  to  re- 
ceive evidences  that  this  mode  of  assisting  the  Association 
meets  the  favor  of  our  friends.  At  no  time  for  thirty  years 
have  names  of  life-members  been  more  frequently  received. 

2.  To  all  persons  paying  one  dollar  per  annum.  We 
have  nearly  one  thousand  annual  subscribers.  They  are 
scattered  over  the  whole  country.  Many  of  them  have  met 
with  stray  copies  of  the  Journal,  and  have  sent  us  by  mail 
their  name  and  dollar  subscription.  A  large  number  live 
in  places  where  there  is  no  Unitarian  Society ;  and  the  Jour- 


OUIt  FIFTH  VOLUME.  77 

nal  supplies  them  with  religious  reading,  and  forms  a  tie  con- 
necting them  with  the  body  of  Christians  to  which  they  feel 
allied.  Through  the  pages  of  this  work  they  learn  what 
plans  of  Christian  action  the  Association  is  undertaking, 
and  now  and  then  a  contribution  is  received  as  the  fruit  of 
such  information ;  as  also  they  see  what  books  the  Associa- 
tion publishes,  copies  of  which  are  accordingly  frequently 
ordered.  These  annual  subscribers  likewise  receive  the 
Year-Booh 

3.  To  all  societies  that  take  up  annually  a  contribution  in 
aid  of  the  Association.  By  far  the  largest  portion  of  our 
quarterly  issue  is  disposed  of  in  this  way.  We  have  had 
the  following  rule  for  our  guide,  —  to  send  as  many  copies  of 
the  Journal  as  there  were  dollars  contributed  by  any  Society, 
excepting  where  the  contribution  was  large,  and  in  this  case 
to  send  such  a  number  of  copies  that  one  may  be  placed  in 
each  pew.  To  all  Societies  thus  contributing,  a  like  num- 
ber of  the  Tear-Booh  is  also  sent. 

For  one  dollar  a  year,  therefore,  we  supply  five  hundred 
and  seventy-five  printed  pages,  and  uniformly  prepay  the 
postage  on  everything  sent  from  our  office.  .We  do  not 
know  of  any  other  publications  of  the  kind  that  are  furnished 
more  cheaply.  Perhaps  our  readers  may  agree  with  us  in 
the  opinion,  that  the  Journal  ought  to  have  a  much  larger 
circulation.  We  had  hoped  that  our  subscription  list  would 
before  this  have  amounted  to  ten  thousand.  May  we  not 
ask  the  assistance  of  our  friends  in  accomplishing  a  result 
which  a  little  painstaking  on  their  part  would  easily  se- 
cure ? 

We  are  stimulated  to  greater  exertions  in  the  promotion 
of  a  pure  and  earnest  faith  by  the  possession  of  more  en- 
couraging opportunities  than  were  ever  before  accorded  to 
us.     It  is  true  we  do  not  witness  any  increase  of  Societies. 

7* 


78  OUB  FIFTH  YOLUME. 

No  denomination  in  New  England  is  growing  in  this  way. 
The  various  sects  do  but  little  more  than  barely  hold  their 
own.  The  religious  world  has  arrived  at  a  stage  of  devel- 
opment in  which  changes  of  opinion  are  not  indicated,  as 
formerly,  by  transfer  of  members  from  one  party  to  another, 
but  are  shown  by  silent  and  gradual  modifications  of  belief 
within  the  party  itself.  Where  are  the  signs  that  a  theology 
which  we  believe  to  be  unscriptual  and  unreasonable  is 
secretly  and  steadily  gaining  any  strength?  We  look  in 
vain  for  such  signs.  All  the  indications  of  the  age  are  the 
other  way.  A  simpler  and  purer  Christianity  is  underlying 
all  our  most  vital  and  hopeful  civilization;  and  literature 
and  art,  humanity  and  reform,  God  and  his  gracious  provi- 
dence, and  Jesus  and  his  spirit  of  truth,  are  all  working  to- 
gether for  the  advancement  of  those  views  which,  dawning 
£rom  the  Scriptures,  are  c<mfirmed  by  our  reason,  and  are 
dear  to  our  hearts. 

Meanwhile,  it  becomes  us  to  stand  in  our  lot  with  more 
hope  and  courage,  with  mbre  faithfulness  in  the  present  and 
more  confidence  in  the  future.  For  a  more  signal  success 
than  has  ever  attended  our  efforts,  nothing  is  wanted  but  a 
more  affectionate  union  among  ourselves,  and  a  more  de- 
vout consecration  to  those  interests  of  which  we  are  put  in 
charge.  Let  us  each  ask  ourselves,  Is  there  not  some- 
thing for  God's  holy  and  precious  truth  which  I  can  do,  — 
something,  the  doing  of  which  may  make  others  b^ter, 
certainly  will  make  me  better  ? 


QUASTEBLY  BEPOBT   OF  HOME  MISSIONARY.  79 


SECOND   QUARTERLY  REPORT  OF   HOME 

MISSIONARY. 

In  my  missionary  visitations  during  the  quarter  which 
has  just  come  to  a  close,  I  have  had  my  attention  drawn  in 
an  especial  manner  to  the  subject  of  church  polity  and 
church  organization.  I  have  had  frequent  opportunities  of 
noting  some  of  the  prominent  causes  of  church  declension 
in  our  body,  which  are  still  operating  most  unfavorably  in 
respect  to  its  future  increase. 

I  find,  by  reference  to  the  missionary  record  which  I 
kept  in  1845,  '46,  and  '47,  that,  notwithstanding  the  uniform 
increase  of  population  in  aU  our  cities  and  towns  between 
the  last  date  named  and  the  present  year,  there  has  been  a 
gradual  falling  off  in  church-membership,  so  far  as  our 
household  of  faith  is  concerned.  The  admissions  to  church- 
fellowship  have  not  equalled  the  number  of  such  as  have 
died,  or  have  ceased  to  be  interested  in  the  means  of  grace. 
I  hope,  erelong,  to  find  time  for  an  explanation  of  this 
startling  fact,  and  to  suggest  certain  remedial  measures, 
which,  if  heartily  adopted  by  ministers  and  those  still  claim- 
ing to  be  members  of  the  visible  Church,  will  be  sure  to 
cause  a  revival  of  religion  in  our  congregations. 

The  mission  with  which  I  have  been  intrusted  is  full  of 
interest  to  me ;  and  I  feel  certain  that  those  with  whom  I 
have  sojourned  have  been  sharers  of  my  joy.  A  rich  ex- 
perience it  is  that  works  conviction  in  behalf  of  a  liberality 
hat  longs  to  give  to  Christ  the  heathen  for  his  inheritance, 
and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession,  and 
which  joins  works  to  faith  in  the  cause  of  this  great  philan- 
thropy. 

The  following  are  brief  sketches  of  the  parishes  I  have 


80  SECOND  QUASTEBLY  REPORT 

visited,  twelve  in  number,  since  my  first  Report.  It  will 
be  seen  that  I  have  officiated  twice  at  Communion  seasons, 
have  preached  twenty-eight  sermons,  and  addressed  twelve 
Sunday  schools.  They  are  barely  sketches  these,  and  noth- 
ing more,  as  room  could  hardly  be  afforded  for  the  contents 
of  twenty  closely  written  quarto  pages,  which  comprise  my 
doings  during  the  last  quarter. 

Mzst  Marshfield,  June  7,  1857.  Rev.  Greo.  Leonard.  — 
My  first  visit  of  the  second  quarter,  since  my  appointment 
as  Home  Missionary,  was  made  to  this  sea-shore  village, 
to  the  church  of  our  faith,  set  upon  a  beautiful  hill.  The 
weather  was  unfavorable  in  the  morning  for  much  of  a 
gathering.  It  improved  in  the  afternoon  and  evening.  At 
the  last  sei^vice  in  the  evening,  at  a  school-house  about  4;wo 
miles  distant  from  the  village,  the  attendance  was  very  good. 
Number  of  inhabitants,  1,000 ;  average  attendance,  100 ; 
members  of  the  church,  15 ;  Sunday  school,  45 ;  teadiers,  9 ; 
library,  ^00  volumes ;  no  fund ;  no  debt.  Oth«»  ^*  %rche8 : 
1  Orthodox,  1  Baptist. 

Fitchhurg,  June  14,  1857.  Rev.  Wm.  P.  Tilden.  —  The 
weather  this  morning  promised  a  golden  day.  A  beautiM 
scene  greeted  me  in  the  spacious  avenue  leading  to  the 
church ;  and  a  still  more  exciting  one,  as  I  gazed  upon  the 
company  of  worshippers  which  filled  the  capacious  church. 
I  preached  all  day  upon  subjects  connected  with  my  mis- 
sion ;  addressed  a  large  Sunday  school ;  and  at  the  close  of 
the  service  in  the  afternoon,  after  the  benediction,  I  unfolded 
my  plans  for  the  circulation  of  our  publications.  Mr.  Til- 
den, in  the  most  genial  and  efficient  manner,  confirmed  my 
statements,  and  the  whole  matter  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
the  Ladies'  Association.     How  they  responded  will  soon  be 


OF  HOME   MISSIONABY.  81 

ascertained;  but  credible  information  assures  me,  that  the 
number  and  value  of  the  books  already  sold  will  prove  the 
high  estimation  in  which  they  are  held  in  this  parish  of  our 
faith.  No  collection  was  taken,  because  a  generous  one  had 
already  been  remitted  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association.  Number  of  inhabitants,  6,000 ;  aver- 
age attendance,  400 ;  members  of  the  church,  150 ;  Sunday 
school,  200  ;  teachers,  25  ;  library,  650  volumes ;  no  debt ; 
no  fund.  Other  churches,  2  Orthodox,  1  Baptist,  1  Univer- 
salist,  1  Methodist,  1  Catholic 

Gloucester^  June  21,  1857.  Rev.  Robert  P.  Rogers.  — 
The  sound  of  the  sea  on  this  rock-bound  coast,  together 
with  the  angular  direction  of  the  streets,  and  the  peculiar 
architecture  of  the  buildings,  reminded  me  at  once  of  my 
native  place,  Newport,  R.  I.,  which  a  French  traveller  once 
wrote  about,  describing  it  ^^as  the  only  place  in  America 
where  they  built  old  houses." 

Mr.  jc^o  wb's  parish  is  in  the  occupancy  of  an  excellent 
church  buuuing,  and  appears  to  be  very  happy  in  the  pas- 
toral relation  subsisting  between  shepherd  and  fold.  I 
preached  all  day ;  took  up  a  collection  in  the  aflemoon,  and 
made  most  successful  arrangements  for  the  sale  of  books. 
Not  a  single  appeal  has  been  made  in  vain  in  behalf  of  the 
Association's  publications.  Number  of  inhabitants,  8,000 ; 
average  attendance  at  the  Unitarian  Church,  120  ;  members 
of  the  church,  30  females,  2  males ;  Sunday  scholars,  60 ; 
teachers,  12 ;  fund,  $  1,300.  Other  churches :  2  Orthodox, 
1  Baptist,  2  Methodist,  1  Universalist,  1  Catholic. 

Dorchester,  Mass,,  First  Parish,  June  28,  1857.  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Hall.  -—  I  have  highly  enjoyed  this  Christian  Sab- 
bath.    The  weather  has  been  very  beautiful ;  and  a  hearty 


82  SECOND  QUASTEBLY  BEPOET 

welcome  from  the  pastor  and  people  has  given  an  additional 
glow  to  the  outer  and  the  inner  world.  The  church  build- 
ing, viewed  externally,  has  undergone  little  or  no  change 
since  its  early  construction  ;  but  the  interior  is  marvellously 
improved.  I  hardly  know  of  a  church  that  is  so  perfect  in 
its  seatings ;  and,  when  occupied  to  the  full,  as  it  was  this 
morning,  no  sight  could  be  more  imposing.  The  chapel 
attached  to  the  church  is  admirably  suited  f(Mr  the  Sunday 
school,  Bible  class,  and  conference  meetings.  I  was  glad  to 
be  introduced  to  such  a  school,  and  to  speak  to  its  pupils  a 
word  of  admonition  and  encouragement  I  preached  all 
day,  and  received  a  very  liberal  contribution  in  aid  of  the 
objects  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  the  Treasurer's  Report  At  the  close  of  the  after- 
noon services,  all  who  felt  interested  were  invited  to  draw 
near  to  the  table  upon  which  the  publications  of  the  Associ- 
ation had  been  placed ;  and  after  a  free  statement  of  my 
plans  of  distribution,  and  a  brief  analysis  of  the  woik%  it 
was  determined  to  leave  the  same  in  the  hands  of  i|be  ladies 
connected  with  the  sewing-cirde.  Number  o£  inhabitants, 
9,000 ;  average  attendance  at  Mr.  Hall's  church,  400 ;  chiprch- 
members,  100;  Sunday  school,  average  attendance^J^; 
whole  number  of  pupils,  200  ;  teachers,  21 ;  librariaitt^i2 ; 
library,  800  volumes ;  fund,  $  15,000. 

Concord,  jBT.  -ffi,  Jidif  5, 1857.  Vacant  —  Sent  as  a  sup- 
ply, the  parish  being  without  a  minister.  Not  having  been 
expected  to  perform  any  special  service,  there  had  been  no 
notice  given  from  the  pulpit  the  Sunday  previous,  and  of 
course  I  withheld  my  missionary  discourse ;  but  which,  sub- 
sequently, it  was  arranged  I  should  deliver  on  the  second 
Sunday  of  September.  My  conversation  with  several  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  satbfied  me  that  their  hearts  and  minds 


OF  HOME  MISSIONABT.  83 

are  alive  and  awake  to  spiritual  things,  and  are  deter- 
mined to  be  built  up  on  the  foundation  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles,  and  upon  none  other.  Number  of  inhabitants, 
11,500 ;  average  attendance  at  Unitarian  Church,  300 ; 
members  of  the  church,  90 ;  Sunday  scholars,  100 ;  teach- 
ers and  superintendent,  17 ;  library,  600  volumes.  Other 
churches;  4  Orthodox,  3  Baptist,  1  Free-Will  Baptist,  1 
Episcopal,  1  Methodist,  1  Universalist,  1  Catholic. 

Dva^bmy^  Mzss.,  Jtify  12, 1857.  Eev.  Josiah  Moore. — 
The  appointment  for  this  day  had  been  agreed  upon  two 
months  ago.  Soon  after  my  arrival,  I  ascertained  that  my 
visit  was  ill-timed,  because  of  a  fair  that  was  soon  to  be  held, 
in  union  with  other  Societies  of  the  place,  for  the  erection  of 
a  fence  around  the  cemetery  of  the  town.  Of  course,  the 
amount  contributed  at  the  church  was  unusually  small.  I 
lefl  with  Mr.  Moore  our  series  of  books,  and  it  was  agreed 
on  all  hands,  that,  as  soon  as  the  fair  was  disposed  of,  they 
would  do  what  they  could  for  their  circulation  and  sale. 
Preached  all  day  and  evening,  and  addressed  Sunday 
school.  Number  of  inhabitants,  2,700 ;  average  attendance 
at  Unitarian  Church,  300 ;  members  of  the  church,  40 ; 
Sunday  school,  60;  teachers,  11;  library,  200  volumes; 
parish  library,  200  volumes ;  fund,  $  10,000.  Other  church- 
es :  3  Methodist,  1  Universalis^ 

North  Chelsea,  July  19,  1857.  Rev.  W.  O.  Moseley. — 
Having  been  requested  by  Mr.  Moseley  to  officiate  for  him 
in  the  "  Tuckerman  "  Church,  and  to  address  the  people  in 
behalf  of  our  book  and  missionary  enterprises,  I  most  gladly 
availed  myself  of  the  opportunity  of  standing  upon  the 
ground  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  one  who,  during  a 
long  series  of  years,  devoted  himself  to  the  highest  happi- 


84  SECOND  QUARTERLY  REPORT 

ness  of  the  people  of  his  charge,  and  who,  when  a  separa* 
tion  from  them  was  deemed  necessary,  entered  upon  a  much 
wider  ministry,  that  of  a  ministry  to  the  poor,  and  continued 
therein,  a  dispenser  of  faith,  hope,  and  love,  as  long  as  his 
feeble  health  would  permit.  The  present  church  is  a  neat 
and  graceful  edifice,  formed  in  part  out  of  the  old  one,  and 
considerably  enlarged.  The  old  steeple  will  ever  remain  as 
a  well-known  landmark.  The  Society  is  growing.  The 
people  are  happy  in  the  ministry  which  they  enjoy.  The 
Sunday  sc];iool,  which  I  addressed,  is  quite  prosperous,  hav- 
ing faithful  teachers  and  a  devoted  minister,  to  aid  them  in 
spiritual  culture.  I  presented  the  subject  of  religious  read- 
ing, and  received  the  most  cordial  assurances  from  the  ladies 
that  everything  should  be  done  in  their  power  to  insure  a 
wide  circulation  of  our  publications.  Number  of  inhabitants, 
800 ;  average  attendance,  100 ;  members  of  the  churchy  20 ; 
Sunday  school,  80 ;  teachers,  10 ;  library,  300  volumes. 
Other  churches :  1  Orthodox. 

Judy  26, 1857.  —  In  consequence  of  a  brother's  inability 
to  fulfil  his  ministerial  engagement  with  me  for  this  Sunday, 
I  have  for  once  laid  aside  my  professional  employmjeii%  and 
been  with  a  numerous  company  to  worship  God,  and  to  lis- 
ten to  a  truly  godly  discourse  upon  the  subject  of  a  want  of 
reverence  at  the  present  day.  The  sermon  was  well  stated 
and  admirably  illustrated. 

.  Salem,  August  2, 1857.  Rev.  James  W.  Thompson,  D.  D. 
—  This  is  one  of  the  most  lovely  days  of  the  season.  Its  ten- 
dency, separate  from  any  religious  considerations,  could  not 
fail  to  attract  the  people  towards  the  various  houses  of  wor- 
ship, so  temptingly  open  for  their  reception.  Barton  Squaire 
Church  was  well  filled,  notwithstanding  the  numerous  ab- 


OF  HOMB  MISSIONAEY.  85 

sentees  at  this  season  of  the  year.  Better  than  all,  there 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  quick  and  earnest  engagedness  in  the 
pews,  the  promise  of  a  happy  and  profitable  day.  Nothing 
cheers  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  so  much  as  the  wide-open 
and  uplifted  eyes  of  a  numerous  congregation,  such  a  one 
as  has  greeted  me  to-day.  There  have  been  no  sleepers 
present  to  put  me  to  sleep.  I  deliverd  discourses  to-day  in 
harmony  with  the  commemorative  service  of  the  blessed 
Communion,  and  with  the  Home  Missionary  movement  in 
our  body.  I  addressed  the  Sunday  school,  embracing  par- 
ents, teachers,  and  scholars,  and  rejoiced  in  the  season,  which 
is  precious  above  all  others  to  me.  I  also  preached  in  the 
evening  in  the  chapel.  A  collection  is  to  be  taken  up  next 
Sunday,  and  measures  have  been  adopted  for  circulating  the 
books.  I  have  never  received  so  many  personal  salutations 
as  were  tendered  to  me.  Both  the  aged  and  middle-aged 
gave  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  This  was  peculiarly 
touching  at  the  close  of  the  Supper.  Number  of  inhabitants, 
22,000 ;  members  who  commune,  85  ;  Sunday  scholars,  100 ; 
teachers  and  superintendents,  20 ;  library,  968  volumes. 
Other  churches :  3  Orthodox,  2  Baptist,  2  Friends,  3  Catho- 
lic, 1  Bethel,  1  Presbyterian,  1  Methodist,  1  Universalist,  3 
Unitarian,  1  City  Missionary,  1  African. 

Saco,  Maine,  August  9,  1857.  Rev.  J.  T.  G.  Nichols.  — 
During  a  three  years'  missionary  service,  from  1845  to 
1847  inclusive,  I  visited  Saco  twice,  and  always  felt  that 
myself  and  the  cause  I  advocated  received  ample  reward 
for  any  exertions  made  in  behalf  of  the  church  in  this  im- 
portant town.  Upon  comparing  the  former  record  of  statis- 
tics with  my  present  tables,  I  find  that  the  population  has 
increased  over  two  thousand.  Number  of  families  attend- 
ing church  have  doubled  during  same  time.     Six  naembers 

VOL.   V.   NO.   I.  8 


86  SECOND  QUARTERLY  REPORT 

have  been  added  to  the  church  this  year.  This  is  a  notice- 
able event,  not  because  of  the  magnitude  of  the  conversions 
which  have  been  wrought  elsewhere,  but  because  of  the  very 
few  instances  of  any  revival  of  religion  whatever  with  us. 
Preached  all  day  and  evening  upon  the  topics  coincident 
with  the  objects  of  my  mission.  Made  arrangements  for  the 
circulation  of  the  publications  of  the  Association.  The  Sun- 
day school  is  flourishing.  No  collection  was  attempted,  be- 
cause the  Society  liberally  contributes  in  aid  of  the  Associa- 
tion, annually.  I  ought  not  to  forget  mentioning,  that  Saco 
is  a  near  neighbor  of  the  city  of  Biddeford.  It  is  expected 
that,  quite  soon,  a  new  Unitarian  Society  will  be  started  in 
that  place,  with  every  prospect  of  sure  growth.  Number  of 
inhabitants  in  Saco,  8,000 ;  members  of  the  church,  58 ; 
teachers,  11;  average  attendance,  300;  Sunday  scholars, 
93 ;  no  fund ;  no  debt.  Other  churches :  1  Orthodox,  1  Bap- 
tist, 1  Free-Will  Baptist,  1  Methodist,  1  Universalist,  1 
Episcopalian. 

Newport,  R,  £,  August  16, 1857.  Rev.  C.  T.  Brooks. — 
This  day  opened  most  gloriously.  The  atmosphere  is  so 
genial  that  one  might  adopt,  without  exaggeration,  the  lanr 
guage  of  Dr.  Morse,  in  one  of  his  early  Geographies,  and 
say  of  this  spot  of  earth,  "  It  is  the  Eden  of  America."  At 
church  time,  the  streets  were  suddenly  made  alive  with  peo- 
ple, on  foot  and  in  carriages,  wending  their  way  to  their 
several  places  of  worship.  The  church  of  our  faith  was 
crowded  with  its  own  society,  and  with  a  great  number  of 
strangers  from  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Balti- 
more. Preached,  as  usual,  concerning  matters  and  things 
connected  with  my  missionary  labors.  The  response  was 
unrestrained  and  most  generous.  Let  us  ever  thank  Gk)d 
and  take  courage.     I  had  the  pleasure  of  addressing  a  very 


OF  HOME  MISSIONABT.  87 

prosperous  Sunday  school.  I  preached  on  Sunday  after- 
noon, also  on  the  Friday  evening  following.  '  The  series  of 
books  published  by  the  Association  were  left  with  the  pastor, 
to  be  circulated  by  ladies  connected  with  the  parish.  I  will 
just  add,  that  the  church  building  is  very  commodious,  and 
beautifully  proportioned.  Number  of  inhabitants,  10,000  ; 
average  attendance,  200 ;  church  members,  40 ;  Sunday 
scholars,  85  ;  library,  600  volumes.  Other  churches :  3  Bap- 
tist, 1  Seventh-Day  Baptist,  2  Methodist,  4  Episcopal,  2 
Friends,  1  Catholic,  1  Orthodox,  2  African. 

FaU  River,  August  23, 1857.  Eev.  Josiah  K  Waite.  — 
This  Society  has  evidently,  of  late,  increased  in  numbers 
and  in  religious  interest  It  has  not  learned,  because  it  has 
never  been  systematically  taught,  of  the  blessedness  of  re- 
ligious activity  and  charity  beyond  its  own  pale.  But  a 
change  has  already  become  apparent,  and  very  soon  nothing 
will  be  wanting  to  make  this  a  luxuriant  vine  of  God's 
own  planting.  As  fast  and  as  far  as  they  become  sympa- 
thetic with  our  whole  household  of  faith,  at  home  and 
abroad,  will  be  their  growth  in  the  study  and  practise  of 
Christianity.  I  preached  all  day,  and  addressed  the  Sunday 
school.  Made  arrangements  for  the  circulation  of  our  books 
through  the  kind  agency  of  Mr.  Potter.  Took  up  a  collec- 
tion in  the  afternoon,  and  attended  a  conference  meeting  in 
the  vestry  in  the  evening.  As  respects  this  last  service,  I 
must  confess  that,  for  years,  I  have  not  experienced  such 
genuine  pleasure  and  profit  as  I  derived  from  that  meeting. 
It  reminded  me  of  the  good  times,  so  richly  experienced,  at 
the  "  Church  of  the  Disciples."  The  speaking  was  very 
general,  and  full  of  life-giving  expressions  in  behalf  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  There  are  two  such  meetings  held  every 
week.    There  is  also  a  Bible-class  meeting,  and  a  church 


88         QUASTEBLY  BEPOBT   OF   HOME  MISSIONABT. 

meeting.  May  God  be  pleased  to  help  on  the  good  work. 
Number  of  inhabitants,  13,000 ;  Sunday  school,  150  ;  teach- 
ers, 15  ;  library,  400  volumes ;  average  attendance,  200. 
Other  churches :  2  Orthodox,  3  Methodist,  1  Presbyterian, 
2  Christian  Baptist,  1  Swedenborgian,  2  Calvinist  Baptist,  2 
Friends,  1  Catholic. 

Marblehead,  Augtist  30, 1857.  — This  parish  is  without  a 
stated  ministry.  After  Rev.  Mr.  Bartlet's  death,  Rev.  Mr. 
Huntoon  officiated,  until  his  health  obliged  him  to  vacate  a 
pulpit  in  which,  and  out  of  which,  he  rendered  himself  an 
acceptable  and  profitable  preacher  and  pastor.  It  is  a  Soci- 
ety that  any  earnest,  devoted  minister  might  well  covet,  if 
to  godly  preaching  he  shall  be  able  to  add  godly  visiting. 
So  much  is  to  be  done  for  souls  in  the  house  and  by  the 
way-side,  as  well  as  in  the  pulpit,  that  the  business  of  private 
and  public  religious  instruction  should  be  felt  to  be  equal- 
ly pressing.  Addressed  the  Sunday  school  in  the  morning. 
Preached  all  day,  and,  at  the  close  of  the  afternoon  service, 
took  up  a  collection  in  behalf  of  missionary  objects,  and  for 
the  promotion  of  the  book  enterprise.  Number  of  inhah- 
itants,  7,000 ;  members  of  the  church,  30  ;  Sunday  scholars 
80  ;  average  attendance,  400 ;  teachers  of  Sunday  school, 
15  ;  library,  400  volumes  ;  church  fund,  $  500  ;  no  debt. 
Other  churches :  1  Orthodox,  1  Methodist,  1  Baptist,  1  Uni- 

versalist. 

Geo.  G.  Channino,  ITome  Missionary. 


WILLIAM  PARSONS   LUNT.  89 


WILLIAM  PARSONS   LUNT. 

With  sensations  of  deep  grief  our  brotherhood  received 
the  tidings  of  the  death  of  one  of  our  ripest  scholars  and 
most  eloquent  preachers.  Dr.  Lunt  was  not  widely  known 
in  the  denomination.  He  sought  no  notoriety ;  on  the  other 
hand,  he  instinctively  shrank  from  it.  His  study  was  his 
•world.  Excepting  his  own  people,  and  the  few  pulpits  in 
his  neighborhood,  the  affluence  of  his  genius  and  culture  was 
known  only  by  two  or  three  public  performances  which  had 
been  reluctantly  undertaken..  To  those  who  knew  him,  it 
was  evident  that  he  had  gathered  stores  both  of  learning 
and  of  spiritual  experience  which  might  yet  bring  forth  fruit 
far  richer  than  any  hitherto  matured ;  and  many  were  the 
fond  hopes  of  wider  usefulness,  and  more  quickening  power, 
as  the  result  of  the  relief,  and  mental  and  bodily  recreation, 
afforded  by  foreign  travel.  But  these  hopes  were  not  to  be 
fulfilled.  Suddenly  and  at  midday  was  his  sun  to  go  down, 
its  renewed  splendors  to  shine  in  a  world  where  they  shall 
no  more  be  dimmed. 

William  Parsons  Lunt  was  bom  in  Newburyport,  April 
21,  1805.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1823,  and 
completed  his  course  of  theological  study  at  the  Divinity 
School  in  Cambridge,  in  1828.  He  was  ordained  pastor  of 
the  Second  Congregational  Unitarian  Society  in  New  York, 
now  Church  of  the  Messiah,  June  19,  1828 ;  and  June  3, 
1835,  was  installed  colleague  pastor  of  the  ancient  Congre- 
gational Church  in  Quincy,  Massachusetts,  of  which  he  was 
the  sole  minister  at  the  time  of  his  death.  In  December, 
1856,  he  sailed  for  Europe,  with  the  purpose  of  visiting 
Egypt  and  Palestine.  He  was  seized  with  disease  on  cross- 
ing the  desert  between  Cairo  and  Jerusalem,  and  on  March 

8* 


90  WILLIAM  PABSONS   LUNT. 

21,  1857,  died  at  Akaba,  a  small  village  in  Arabia  Petrsea, 
near  the  site  of  the  ancient  cities  of  Elatb  and  Ezion-Geber. 
On  the  7th  of  June  last  solemn  commemorative  services 
were  held  in  the  church  in  Quincy.  A  most  appropriate 
and  affectionate  discourse  was  preached  by  Rev,  Chandler 
Robbins,  D.  D.,  of  Boston.  The  following  is  an  extract, 
giving  an  account  of  Dr.  Lunt*s  last  letters,  and  of  his  sick- 
ness and  death. 

"  His  last  letters  were  written  on  the  eve  of  his  entrance  into 
the  desert  which  lies  between  Egypt  and  Palestine.  Their  tone 
is  cheerful,  even  jubilant.  Was  he  not  nearing  the  goal  of  his 
longings  !  Was  he  not  nearing  the  promised  land !  *  Our  tent,' 
—  he  writes  from  Cairo,  on  the  22d  of  February,  —  *  is  now 
pitched  in  the  great  square  opposite  my  window,  and  yesterday 
we  tried  for  the  first  time  the  camel's  back.  It  is  more  like  a 
dream  than  anything  which  has  ever  happened  to  me.  Only  fifty- 
three  days  have  elapsed  since  I  left  home,  and  now,  here  I  am, 
with  my  most  cherished  plan  about  to  be  accomplished!  How 
amazing  it  seems  to  me  to  be  commencing  a  journey  in  which,  all 
the  way  through^  ilie  Bible  is  the  best  guide-book  !  Our  expectation 
is  to  be  in  Jerusalem  in  about  forty  days,  which  will  bring  us  to 
the  6th  of  April.  Eastei'  this  year  falls  on  the  10th  of  April,  and 
that  will  be  a  truly  interesting  occasion  to  be  in  Jerusalem.  You 
will  not,  therefore,  expect  to  hear  from  or  of  me  for  a  long  time 
after  this.  But  I  trust  in  the  kind  care  that  has  preserved  me  thus 
far,  to  enable  me  to  carry  through  to  a  happy  result  this,  the  dai^ 
ling  wish  of  my  life.' 

"  At  a  still  later  date,  the  28th  of  February,  he  writes  from  the 
desert  itself,  in  which  his  small  caravan  had  pitched  their  tents,  a 
few  miles  distant  from  Suez.  *  Our  ride  in  the  desert  has  been 
beautiful.  The  atmosphere  has  been  clear  and  bracing.  I  never 
enjoyed  any  scenery  more  highly.  At  sunrise,  this  morning, 
while  the  Bedouins  were  striking  the  tents  and  loading  the  cam- 
els, our  party  walked  forth  to  enjoy  the  exhilarating  air.  The 
hills  on  either  side,  although  composed  of  nothing  but  stone  and 


WILLIAM  PABSONS  LUNT.  91 

sand,  yet  presented  the  most  beautiful  forms  against  the  clear  sky, 
and  were  colored  with  the  softest  tints.  Every  shade  imaginable 
of  brown  and  purple  was  displayed  upon  their  many  angles,  and 
mingled  with  the  masses  of  shade.  I  have  just  mounted  one  of 
them,  and,  with  a  telescope,  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Red 
Sea,  stretching  its  blue  line  down  from  Suez,  and  beyond  it  the 
hills  of  Asia.  I  never  felt  better  in  my  life,  and  everything  looks 
inviting  before  me.' 

"  Over  the  same  dreary  wilderness  through  which,  of  old,  the 
hand  of  Jehovah  led  his  chosen  Israel,  —  in  '  the  right  way,  to  a 
city  of  habitation,'  —  though  a  way  that  seemed  to  them  so  circu- 
itous and  tiresome  and  desolate,  —  the  same  secret  hand  was  lead- 
ing him,  to  the  same  sure  rest.  He  saw  the  same  bleak  rocks 
which  frowned  upon  them.  He  wound  his  way  through  the  same 
dark  valleys  which  they  traversed.  He  climbed  the  same  precip- 
itous and  stony  paths  up  which  they  toiled.  He  stood  where  they 
stood,  awe-struck  before  Sinai  and  Horeb.  His  last  walk  was 
alone,  along  one  of  the  deep  chasms  that  indent  their  united  base, 
—  near  where  once  the  prophet  Elijah  walked  in  gloomy  seclu- 
sion. 

''  Who  can  tell  us  what  were  his  impressions  amidst  that  sub- 
h'me  scenery  1  The  shadow  of  the  awful  mount  may,  for  a  little 
while,  have  cast  its  gloom  over  his  sensitive  and  poetic  mind  ;  but 
quickly  the  gladdening  Gospel  came  to  cheer  its  solitary  herald  in 
the  very  place  which  had  once  reverberated  with  the  thunders  that 
announced  the  Law  ;  and  above  that  scarred  and  frowning  monu- 
ment of  wrath  and  judgment,  ■ —  of  *  blackness  and  darkness  and 
tempest,' — the  radiant  sign  of  a  better  covenant  glittered  like  the 
morning  star. 

**  He  returned,  apparently  in  his  usual  health,  to  the  Convent, 
from  which  he  had  strolled  forth,  while  his  more  robust  compan- 
ions were  ascending  the  mountain.  The  day  after  leaving  Sinai, 
a  disease,  which  had  been  coming  on  stealthily  for  several  days 
previous,  began  to  manifest  more  decided  symptoms,  and  was  evi- 
dently fastened  upon  him.  Still  he  was  able  to  be  moved.  No 
accommodations  or  comforts  for  sickness  could  be  obtained  in  the 
desert.     The  Bedouins  were  unable  to  find  water.    To  remain 


92  ANTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

where  they  were  was  perilous  and  impracticable.  The  only 
chance  of  relief  was  in  getting  on  to  some  inhabited  place.  He 
was  carried  forward  for  three  or  four  days,  by  short  stages,  as  care- 
fully and  gently  as  was  possible  on  a  camel's  back. 

''  They  halted  at  Akaba,  a  small  and  mean  village  of  Arabia 
Petraea,  situated  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Elanitic  Gulf,  — 
the  eastern  arm  of  the  Ked  Sea.  Everything  was  done  to  comfort 
the  invalid  that  the  skill  and  kindness  of  his  intelligent  fellow- 
travellers  could  suggest  or  supply.  But  it  was  in  vain.  While 
neither  they  nor  he  anticipated  immediate  danger,  he  was  already 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  aid.  The  second  night  at  Akaba,  af- 
ter a  short  fever,  attended  with  delirium,  a  deep  sleep  fell  upon 
him,  and  in  it  he  passed  away.  Since  he  must  die  afar  from  his 
kindred,  was  it  not  mercifully  appointed  that  that  soft  veil  should 
hide  from  him  a  vision  of  the  sorrowful  group  at  home,  for  whose 
sake,  far  more  than  for  his  own,  it  might  have  been  hard  to  die  ! 
Who  can  hesitate  to  acknowledge  that  it  was  *  the  right  way!^ 

"  Decently  and  reverently,  on  the  morning  of  the  21st  of  March, 
his  mortal  remains  were  laid  away  in  the  sand.  The  funeral  ser- 
vice  was  recited  by  a  clergyman  from  his  own  country,  while  all 
the  English,  French,  and  American  travellers  who  were  then  at 
Akaba  stood  uncovered  around  the  grave.  The  place  selected  for 
his  sepulchre  was  a  sandy  eminence  in  the  rear  of  the  town.  A 
rude  heap  of  stones  marks  the  spot.  His  monument  is  in  youi 
hearts."  — pp.  34-37. 


ANTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

Rev.  Dr.  Miles,  Secretary  of  the  American   Unitaricm 
Association :  — 

Dear  Sir,  —  You  have  been  pleased  to  say  that  you 
should  like  to  have  the  remarks  which  I  made  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Executive  Committee,  on  my  return  from  Anti- 


ANTIOCH    COLLEGE.  93 

ocli  College,  brought  into  such  a  form  that  they  could  be 
presented  to  the  readers  of  the  Quarterly  JoumaL  It  was 
my  object  in  those  remarks  to  give  in  plain,  if  not  in  few 
words,  the  impressions  which  I  received  from  my  two  days' 
visit  at  Yellow  Springs.  It  will  be  my  aim  now  to  assist 
others  in  forming  a  judgment  concerning  an  institution, 
the  character  of  which  is  imperfectly  known  in  New  Eng- 
land, by  a  j&ank  confession  of  the  effect  on  my  own  mind 
of  what  I  saw  and  heard. 

I  arrived  at  Yellow  Springs  on  the  day  before  the  Com- 
mencement, and  had  both  public  and  private  opportunity 
of  observing  the  influence  of  the  College  on  those  who  were 
connected  with  it.  It  may  not  be  improper  to  say,  that,  if 
the  interest  I  felt  in  the  institution  drew  me  from  home,  I 
carried  with  me  some  New  England  notions  that  were  likely 
to  be  offended  by  what  I  should  find.  I  believe  there  was 
as  much  of  unfavorable  as  of  favorable  prepossession  in  my 
mind. 

The  situation  of  Antioch  College,  though  not  particularly 
agreeable  to  the  eye,  is  well  chosen.  In  the  southwestern 
part  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  seventy-five  miles  north  of  Cincin- 
nati, accessible  by  railroad,  yet  not  lying  on  any  great  line  of 
travel,  its  position  is  at  once  central  and  secluded.  A  loose, 
straggling  village  will  soon  grow  into  a  neat  town,  and  may 
eventually  extend  itself  around  the  College  buildings ;  which 
now  stand  in  naked  majesty,  every  tree  having  been  swept 
from  the  lawn  on  which  they  are  placed,  while  a  noble 
grove  but  a  few  rods  distant  shows  how  regardless  alike  of 
beauty  and  of  comfort  was  the  "  clearer's  "  axe.  There  are 
now  three  buildings,  which  might  and  should  be  united  by 
covered  galleries,  to  prevent  exposure  in  passing  from  one 
to  the  other  in  stormy  weather.  The  expense  of  complet- 
ing the  structure  according  to  the  original  design,  with  con- 


94  ANTIOCH    COLLEGE. 

necting  piazzas,  would  be  about  five  thousand  dollars ;  all 
that  is  really  necessary  might  be  provided  for  a  tenth  part 
of  that  sum.  The  buildings  are  of  brick,  four  stories  in 
height,  and,  with  the  exception  I  have  noticed,  are  finished 
externally  and  internally.  The  central  edifice  has  rather  an 
imposing  appearance  ;  the  other  two  are  as  plain  parallelo- 
grams as  Harvard  or  Yale  can  boast.  The  former  contains 
the  chapel,  a  large  and  well-arranged  room,  capable  of  hold- 
ing nearly  a  thousand  persons,  the  library,  in  which  the 
present  collection  of  books  reminds  one  of  the  famous  line, 
"  Tall  oaks  from  little  acorns  grow,"  the  lecture  and  reci- 
tation rooms,  and  several  smaller  apartments.  The  two 
buildings  in  the  rear  are  used  for  dormitories,  one  being 
given  wholly  to  the  young  men,  while  in  the  other  provision 
is  made  for  the  residence  of  the  steward's  family,  besides  a 
general  parlor  for  the  young  ladies,  and  the  use  of  the  whole 
of  the  ground  floor  as  a  "  commons'  hall."  There  is  ample 
room  for  the  accommodation  of  all  the  students.  The  Pres- 
ident's and  Professors'  houses  are  just  without  the  College 
fence.  There  is  pleasant  scenery  in  the  neighborhood,*  and 
the  climate  is  found,  even  by  invalids,  to  be  healthful.  Some 
springs,  at  a  short  distance,  from  which  the  place  derives  its 
name,  though  they  possess  little  medicinal  virtue,  have  been 
visited  for  years  by  persons  seeking  salubrious  air  and  op- 
portunity for  agreeable  exercise. 


*  I  am  unable  to  verify  from  actual  observation  the  enthusiastic 
description  inLippincott's  "  Gazetteer" : — "  Adjoining  the  College  plat 
on  tlie  east  is  a  highly  romantic  and  picturesque  ravine,  affording  all 
the  scenic  variety  of  overhanging  cliffs,  waterfalls,  isolated  rocks,  nu- 
merous gushing  springs,  deeply  embowered  amid  climbing  vines  and 
clustering  evergreens,  threaded  with  varied  walks,  inviting  the  pedes- 
trian by  their  cooling  shade  and  graceful  bowers."  Still  I  would  by  no 
means  deny  the  existence  of  such  a  paradise. 


ANTIOCH    COLLEGE.  95 

Antioch  College  has  been  in  existence  four  years,  having 
just  graduated  its  first  class.  It  consists  of  three  depart- 
ments,.—  the  "  Preparatory,"  the  "  English,"  and  the  "  Un- 
dergraduate." The  first  two  are  in  effect  one,  embracing  the 
branches  of  instruction  common  in  our  schools  and  acade- 
mies; the  last  corresponds  to  our  colleges,  with  a  four 
years'  course  of  study.  The  Catalogue  for  the  year  1856-7 
gives  the  whole  number  of  students  as  539,  of  whom  105 
were  undei^raduates.  The  earlier  classes,  as  might  be  pre- 
sumed, were  small,  but  the  Freshman  class  of  last  year  in- 
cluded 52  members,  a  decisive  proof  of  the  estimation  into 
which  the  College  is  rising  with  those  who  desire  more  than 
an  elementary  education.  At  the  late  Commencement,  fif- 
teen were  graduated ;  three  of  whom  were  young  ladies, 
who  read  their  performances  and  received  their  diplomas 
with  a  propriety  and  grace  of  manner  that  could  not  have 
disturbed  the  severest  taste.  The  exercises  were  all  such 
as  did  no  discredit  to  the  training  under  which  the  pupils 
had  passed.  Some  of  them  were  remarkable  for  vigor  of 
expression  and  soundness  of  thought,  and,  in  point  of  both 
composition  and  delivery,  the  average  merit  did  not  fall  be- 
low that  of  any  of  our  Eastern  Colleges.  Of  the  thirty 
institutions  bearing  this  name  in  Ohio,  none  can  claim  supe- 
riority to  Antioch,  and  but  one  or  two,  I  was  assured  by  a 
competent  judge,  can  give  as  good  proof  of  faithful  instruc- 
tion and  diligent  study. 

The  most  obvious  peculiarity  of  Antioch  is  the  enjoyment 
by  both  sexes  of  the  privileges,  and  their  subjection  to  the 
restraints,  of  academical  life  on  perfectly  equal  terms.  This 
feature  of  the  institution  has  awakened  in  many  minds  such 
a  doubt  of  the  wisdom  of  its  managers,  that  nothing  but 
long  and  entire  success  will  overcome  their  distrust.  The 
experience  of  four  years  may  not  be  thought  sufficient  to 


96  ANTIOCH    COLLEGE. 

settle  so  grave  a  question.  Yet  I  cannot  but  think  that  a 
visit  to  Yellow  Springs  would  go  far  towards  changing  the 
opinion  so  common  at  the  North  in  regard  to  the  impropri- 
ety, if  not  impracticability,  of  such  a  union  of  the  sexes. 
I  certainly  went  there  without  any  prejudice  in  its  favor, 
and  expecting  to  see  much  which  would  justify  a  preference 
of  the  separation  which  we  deem  both  safer  and  more  deco- 
rous. But  as  for  safety,  decorum,  propriety,  or  practicabil- 
ity, I  saw  nothing  which  warranted  the  slightest  doubt  or 
fear.  Two  days'  close  observation,  under  various  circum- 
stances, confirmed  the  testimony  of  all  of  whom  I  made 
inquiry,  that  no  evil  resulted  from  the  participation  of 
young  men  and  women  in  the  same  scholastic  exercises. 
Whether  in  the  public  hall,  the  crowded  levee,  the  street, 
or  in  private  conversation,  I  did  not  notice  less  ease  or  re- 
finement of  manner,  or  a  greater  freedom  of  behavior,  than 
in  similar  circles  at  home.  It  should  be  remembered  tiiat 
the  experiment  was  not  commenced  under  specially  &yora- 
ble  circumstances.  Some  of  the  young  men,  before  coming 
to  Antioch,  had  been  accustomed  to  what  we  are  apt  to  con- 
sider the  rough  and  rude  ways  of  the  West,  and  the  first 
year,  though  free  from  reproach,  was  not  without  its  trials. 
Gentle  discipline  and  consistent  example  on  the  part  of  the 
instructors  were,  however,  sufficient  to  correct  any  tendency 
to  disorder,  and  the  last  year  has  scarcely  given  occasion  for 
the  exercise  of  coercive  authority.  Not  only  are  pupils  re- 
ceived from  either  sex,  but  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen  are 
employed  as  teachers,  even  in  the  higher  branches ;  an  in- 
novation that,  in  the  judgment  of  many,  would  be  sufiicient 
to  discredit  the  right  of  Antioch  to  rank  as  a  College.  Yet 
the  universal  expression  of  respect  for  the  lady  who  filled 
one  of  the  professorships  last  year,  and  the  ample  qualifica- 
tion of  another  recently  appointed,  whose  modesty  sdone 


ANTIOGH   COLLEGE.  97 

has  prevented  her  rare  acquirements  from  being  known  be- 
yond the  circle  of  personal  friends,  afford  good  reason  for 
relinquishing  the  belief  that  women  can  teach  onlj  the  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge.  At  Antioch,  the  opinion  seemed  to 
be  unanimous  in  regard  to  the  Influence  which  the  pres- 
ence of  female  instructors  and  female  students  had  exerted 
on  the  deportment  and  characters  of  the  young  men. 

The  other  most  remarkable  peculiarity  of  this  Western 
institution  is  the  disuse  of  emulation  as  a  motive  to  study 
or  good  behavior.  <^  Eank  "  is  ignored.  No  one  takes  pre- 
cedence of  another.  The  performances  at  Commencement 
are  not  distributed  on  any  scale  of  relative  merit  What- 
ever jealousies  or  disappointments  grow  out  of  the  rivalry 
allowed  or  encouraged  in  ahnost  all  other  seminaries,  are 
here  unknown,  or  are  at  least  kept  out  of  sight.  Yet  there 
is  no  want  of  interest  in  the  purpose  for  which  the  yourig 
people  are  assembled  within  the  coUegiate  halls.  The  spirit 
of  study  is  as  prevalent  and  as  strong  as  in  any  similar  in- 
stitution. It  has  been  shown,  that  prizes  and  honors,  com- 
petition and  £une,  are  i^ot  necessary  to  awaken  the  love  of 
knowledge,  or  to  sustain  the  effort  for  its  acquisition.  The 
value  of  this  example  I  cannot  but  regard  as  almost  inap- 
preciable. 

You  will  probably  infer  from  these  remarks,  that  I  was 
gratified  with  the  moral  condition  of  Antioch.  So  far  as  I 
could  judge,  it  seemed  to  me  satisfactory  and  admirable. 
Practices  with  which  I  had  always  been  familiar  in  our 
Eastern  colleges,  and  which  I  had  been  told  were  ineradica- 
ble, were  banished  from  the  place.  The  use  of  tobacco, 
that  favorite  indulgence  of  the  West,  is  entirely  and  suc- 
cessfully prohibited.  No  means  of  intoxication  or  gaming 
are  allowed.  No  immorality  is  virtually  countenanced,  by 
permitting  its  indulgence  if  it  do  not  become  too  open  or 

VOL.  V.  NO.  T.  9 


98  ANTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

too  gross.  If  there  be  yice,  it  is  at  least  disreputable  and 
covert  Again  let  me  remind  you,  that,  if  the  seclusion  of 
Yellow  Springs  forbids  the  proximity  of  social  temptation, 
here  are  more  than  five  hundred  young  people,  three  fourths 
of  them  young  men,  many  of  them  fond  of  that  indepen- 
dence of  conventional  rules  to  which  they  have  been  accus- 
tomed, brought  together  at  an  age  when  ardent  feelings  and 
undisciplined  tempers  easily  run  into  disorder.  The  ab- 
sence of  such  disorder  is  noteworthy. 

In  the  address  delivered  by  President  Mann,  at  the  dose 
of  the  Commencement  exercises,  a  position  was  taken,  and 
maintained  with  equal  deamess  of  expression  and  strength 
of  argument,  which,  if  enforced  in  almost  any  one  of  the 
older  colleges  of  the  country,  would  cause  an  outcry  of  ap- 
prehension, lest  it  should  be  ruined  by  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  its  students.  Yet  how  can  our  colleges  become 
what  they  should  be,  while  they  hesitate  to  accept  this  posi- 
tion ?  Affirming  that  a  college  had  no  right  to  send  out 
graduates  into  the  community,  with  its  virtual  recommenda- 
tion, unless  they  were  correct  in  life,  he  declared  that  no 
person  of  immoral  or  vicious  habits  should  ever  reoeive  a 
diploma  from  his  hand.  Is  not  this  a  vindication  of  the  true 
principle,  by  which  the  moral  takes 'precedence  of  the  liter- 
ary character  of  an  institution  designed  to  prepare  young 
men  to  fill  their  places  in  society  ?  I  could  not  but  listen 
with  admiration  to  the  frank  and  manly  tone  of  Christian 
sentiment  which  pervaded  this  address. 

President  Mann's  influence  over  the  students  at  Antioch 
is  certainly  as  great  as  he,  or  any  one,  should  desire  to  exer- 
cise. The  confidence  which  is  reposed  in  his  ability  and 
sincerity  is  unqualified.  And  it  has  good  foundation.  The 
course  which  he  has  pursued  since  he  took  charge  of  the 
College,  has  been  judicious  and  consistent     Without  re- 


AKTIOOH   OOLLEGB.  99 

noundng  his  political  attachments,  he  has  withdrawn  from 
political  action,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  interests  of  edu- 
cation. Throughout  the  State  he  is  known  and  esteemed 
for  his  intelligent  and  luminous  advocacy  of  these  inter- 
ests ;  and  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  State,  his  name 
carries  a  weight  of  influence  enjoyed  by  few  others.  Since 
his  remo^  to  Ohio  he  has  become  a  member  of  the  ^^  Chris- 
tian Connection,"  from  a  preference  of  their  fundamental 
principle,  of  entire  freedom  for  the  individual  judgment 
within  the  limits  of  Scripture.  Adopting  both  the  truths 
involved  in  this  principle,  the  authority  of  Scripture  on  the 
one  hand,  and  independence  of  ecclesiastical  authority  on 
the  other,  he  can  be  Christian  without  being  sectarian,  and 
belong  to  a  denomination  without  encouraging  proselyt- 
ism.  That  he  exerts  a  decidedly  religious  influence  cannot 
be  doubted.  Though  not  ^n  ordained  or  licensed  preacher, 
he  often  fills  the  pulpit  of  neighboring  societies  on  Sunday, 
and  conducts  the  devotional  services  in  the  College  Chapel. 
Of  the  religious  condition  of  Antioch,  I  cannot,  of  course, 
speak  from  any  direct  knowledge.  Of  a  positive  interest  in 
religion,  I  am  inclined  to  think  there  is  neither  more  nor 
less  than  is  usually  found  in  similar  institutions.  One  of 
the  rules,  which  requires  attendance  on  public  worship  once 
only  on  the  Lord's  day,  may  be  thought  too  lax,  but  the 
reasons  which  led  to  its  adoption  are  not  without  force. 
Morning  prayers  are  observed  daily  in  the  Qhapel,  at  which 
the  students  are  required  to  be  present.  The  College  is 
neither  directly  nor  indirectly  committed  to  the  support  of 
any  theological  tenets.  If  the  Christians  and  Unitarians 
alone  have  shown  an  interest  in  its  success,  it  is  because 
they  alone  have  approved  of  its  care  in  avoiding  sectarian 
proclivities.  It  throws  its  doors  open  to  all  who  seek  the 
means  of  intellectual  culture,  and  it  disowns  or  dislikes  only 

:-    ,»   .,-v  ^     . 
■*        r  '   .    »    .    r    # 


100  ANTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

those  who  lead  an  immoral  life.  It  makes  no  attempt  to 
convert  any  student  to  a  particular  form  of  religious  belief, 
and  regards  all  sects  with  an  inipartial  indiflerence.  It  is 
this  position,  so  unlike  that  taken  by  the  other  literary 
institutions  near  it,  that  should  give  to  Antioch  a  special 
importance  in  our  eyes,  and  does  give  it  a  peculiar  advan- 
tage in  its  relation  to  the  part  of  the  country  in  which  it  is 
situated.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it  must  or  will 
draw  its  students  almost  wholly  from  the  Christian  denomi- 
nation. That  great  body  of  people,  spread  all  over  the 
States  lying  between  the  old  Western  border  of  the  Union 
and  the  Mississippi,  who  reject  creeds,  and  who,  some 
with  and  some  without  faith  in  Christianity,  demand  liberal 
treatment  of  their  liberal  views,  are  looking,  and  every  year 
will  look  more  confidently,  to  Antioch  as  the  only  place  of 
education  for  their  children.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  over- 
rate the  influence  which  it  may  hereafter  exert  if  it  shonld 
retain  its  present  character  with  increasing  resources,  or  the 
loss  which  would  be  incurred  if  it  should  sink  under  its 
present  pecuniary  embarrassments.  It  stands,  not  merely 
as  one  of  the  light-houses  of  knowledge,  shedding  a  broad 
and  generous  illumination  over  the  pathways  of  education, 
but  as  a  citadel  of  free  thought  for  that  vast  region,  in 
which  young  minds  may  enjoy  protection  till  they  are 
trained  to  exercise  their  own  powers  on  truth  and  life.  Its 
overthrow  would  be  a  calamity  of  the  most  serious  kind, 
from  which  letters,  morals,  and  religion  might  suffer  long 
after  the  opportunity  of  saving  them  from  such  a  disaster 
had  passed  out  of  our  hands. 

Antioch  is  not  a  Unitarian  College,  and  should  not  be 
made  such.  By  assuming  a  denominational  attitude,  it 
would  forfeit  its  relation  to  the  free  intellectual  activity  of 
the  West     It  can  best  promote  the  diflusion  of  Unitarian 


ANTIOCH   COLLEGE.  101 

sentiment  by  faithfulness  to  its  unsectarian  position.  There 
is,  doubtless,  a  readiness  with  large  numWs  in  the  West  to 
accept  our  exposition  of  the  Gospel,  as  well  as  a  curiosity 
with  others  who  would  patiently  listen,  though  they  might 
not  assent.  While  the  Christian  Connection  would  certain- 
ly prefer  to  retain  their  own  arrangements,  and  would  be 
jealous  of  any  attempt  which  they  should  think  they  dis« 
covered  on  our  part  to  hide  their  distinctiye  existence 
under  our  name,  they  are  prompt  to  acknowledge  a  general 
agreement  with  us  in  the  interpretation  of  Christian  truth. 
The  delight  with  which  they  confess  having  listened  to 
Dr.  Bellows,  is  a  proof  of  this  harmony.  On  the  Sunday 
before  I  reached  Yellow  Springs  he  had  preached  a  sermon 
in  the  College  Chapel  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  which  all  who 
heard  it  spoke  .with  the  greatest  satisfaction.  On  the  day 
preceding  the  Commencement  he  delivered  an  Address 
before  the  United  Literary  Societies  of  Antioch  College, 
which  called  forth  the  hearty  expressions  of  admiration 
which  it  deserved.  It  would  be  unjust  to  allude  to  this 
Address  without  saying  a  word  of  its  extraordinary  merit 
A  discussion  of  the  subject  of  Education,  under  the  several 
heads  of  natural  and  artificial,  human  and  Divine,  popu- 
lar and  scholastic,  European  and  American,  Eastern  and 
Western,  trite  as  was  the  topic,  nothing  could  have  been 
more  appropriate,  sound,  or  racy.  When  a  fortnight  later  I 
yielded,  with  every  one  else,  to  the  charm  of  that  exquisite 
rhetoric  which  only  he  whom  Lord  Napier  so  aptly  styled 
"  the  magician  of  Massachusetts  '*  knows  how  to  elaborate, 
I  still  could  not  deny  to  the  orator  at  Antioch  the  superi- 
ority in  extent  of  survey  and  athletic  mastery  of  his  theme. 
It  was  not  this  admirable  performance  alone,  however,  but 
all  which  Dr.  Bellows  had  said  and  done  in  his  five  succes- 
sive visits  to  Yellow  Springs,  that  had  drawn  to  him  the* 

9* 


102  AHTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

confidence  of  the  **  Christians  "  of  Ohio.  Whatever  preju- 
dice thej  had  indulged  against  Unitarianism,  he  had  neu- 
tralized. < 

The  expectati<Mi  that  Antiodi  would  supply  students  to 
Meadyille  maj  be  disappointed.  So  long  as  the  coarse 
of  studj  at  the  former  conducts  its  graduates  to  a  much 
higher  point  of  sdiolarship  than  is  required  for  admission  at 
Meadyille,  entrance  into  the  latter  will  be  r^arded  bj  many 
as  a  step  backward^  radier  than  forward.  A  proper  atten- 
tion to  the  difference  in  the  character  and  purpose  of  the 
studies  pursued  at  the  two  places  would  prevent  such  a 
judgment ;  but  young  men  are  apt  to  form  opinions  on  par- 
tial grounds.  That  gradual  increase  in  both  the  requisitions 
and  the  advantages  at  Meadville,  whidi  would  not  be  in- 
consistent with  the  design  of  furnishing  prc^sssional  prep- 
aration to  those  who  had  enjoyed  little  previous  culture, 
will  make  the  weakness  of  this  objection  still  more  manifest 
In  future  years  the  College  wiU,  doubtless,  send  pupils  to 
the  Divinity  School.  Still  the  probability  of  any  large  ben- 
efit which  the  one  will  derive  &om  the  other,  is  not  such  as 
would  entitle  it  to  much  weight  in  considering  the  dakils  of 
Antioch  to  our  support.  These  claims  seem  to  me  to  rest 
on  the  principles  of  education  which  it  is  intended  to  iQus- 
trate,  and  on  the  relation  which  it  holds  to  a  portion  of  what 
is  called,  with  a  constantly  enlarging  definition,  ^  the  great 
West."  Greater  every  year  in  geographical  surfiioe,  it 
also  becomes  greater  in  respect  to  the  influence  it  must 
exert  on  the  national  character  and  history.  Stretching 
from  the  border  of  Pennsylvania  across  the  Mississippi, 
towards,  over,  beyond,  the  Rocky  Mountains,  touching  the 
Northern  Lakes,  and  approaching  the  Southern  Gulf,  "  the 
West "  embraces  more  than  half  our  country.  The  eastern 
part  of  this  extensive  region,  at  once  young  and  old,  when 


ANTIOCH   COLLEGE.  103 

compared  with  the  Atlantic  States  on  the  one  hand,  and 
with  the  soil  which  emigration  reached  bat  yesterday  on 
the  other,  occupies  a  position  the  importance  of  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  overrate ;  a  position  which  enables  it  to 
receive,  and  to  transmit,  as  well  as  retain,  the  intellectual, 
moral,  social,  and  religious  influences  of  which  the  riper 
civilization  and  higher  culture  of  the  Eastern  States  may  be 
the  fountains.  Independently  of- their  connection  with  the 
whole  breadth  of  territory  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Pacific,  these  Middle  States,  as  they  should  now  be  called, 
have  an  active,  ambitious,  and  inquisitive  population,  with 
whom  life  cannot  be  routine,  nor  religion  prescription. 
They  are  not  ready  to  rush  with  blind  delight  into  the  arms 
of  those  who  may  bring  them  a  liberal  theology  or  a  gener- 
ous refinement.  Many,  perhaps  most,  determined  by  con- 
siderations to  which  the  spirit  of  mental  independence  is 
seldom  strong  enough  to  prevent  a  successful  resistance,  will 
adopt  the  forms  of  belief  which  have  the  greatest  currency 
in  the  Christian  world.  But  thousands  of  minds  are  there 
whose  religious  opinions  are  unsettled,  whose  views  of 
the  meaning  and  worth  of  life  are  crude,  and  who  will  wel- 
come an  instruction  that  in  the  same  sentence  directs  the 
conscience  and  solicits  the  approval  of  the  understanding. 
The  West  feels  its  want  of  knowledge  and  faith ;  but  it  will 
not  receive  the  one  nor  the  other  on  dictation.  A  body  of 
teachers,  who  shall  present  truth  and  duty  as  subjects  of  free 
examination  as  well  as  of  high  prerogative,  allowing  and  as- 
sisting every  one  to  justify  to  his  own  mind  the  conclusions 
which  are  proposed  as  final,  will  have  an  eager  and  respect- 
ful audience.  It  is  not  in  contempt  of  other  institutions, 
literary  or  religious  in  their  aims,  that  we  ascribe  to  Antioch 
a  peculiar  ability  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  people  among 
whom  it  is  situated.     Unshackled  by  a  creed,  and  free  from 


104  ANTIOCH   COLLEGE. 

sectarian  control,  it  commands  a  sympathy  which  no  college 
devoted  to  the  support  of  certain  religious  tenets  can  enjoy ; 
while  at  the  same  time  the  spirit  of  faith  that  pervades  its 
'whole  action,  addresses  the  most  effectual  rebuke  to  scepti- 
cism, irreligion,  and  immorality. 

Our  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  Antioch  is  heightened 
by  the  experiment  which  will  there  be  tried  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  country.  Starting  with  all  the  advantage  it 
might  derive  from  the  history  of  other  colleges,  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  exempt  from  any  influence  that  would  prevent 
an  impartial  choice  and  fair  use  of  the  principles  on  which 
such  an  institution  should  be  conducted,  it  has  not  only 
avoided  errors  which  few  would  wish  to  see  retained,  but 
has  adopted  methods  which  are  far  from  having,  as  yet, 
secured  a  general  assent.  By  relying  wholly  on  the  senti- 
ments of  honor  and  rectitude  in  the  young  mind,  and  discard- 
ing alike  rivalry  and  penalty  as  means  by  which  the  student 
may  be  kept  at  his  books,  the  Faculty  at  Antioch  have  set 
themselves  in  opposition  to  time-honored  opinion  and  almost 
universal  practice.  Who  can  help  wishing  that  they  may  es- 
tablish the  sufficiency  of  pure  and  generous  motives,  whether 
for  securing  intellectual  progress,  or  for  enforcing  order  and 
good  behavior  among  the  members  of  our  academical  and  col- 
legiate institutions?  Even  more  valuable  than  this  result 
would  be  success  in  maintaining  the  principle,  that  the 
object  of  such  institutions  is  to  form  character,  as  well  as 
to  develop  and  train  the  mental  powers.  A  college  which 
should  persist  in  refusing  graduation  to  one  who  was  known 
to  be  profane,  intemperate,  or  licentious,  and  in  resolutely 
prohibiting  all  dissipation  or  low  indulgence,  and  which 
should  succeed  in  attracting  scholars,  at  first  in  spite  of  these 
regulations,  but  afterwards,  when  their  good  effects  were 
seen,  in  consequence  of  them,  —  such  a  college  would  be  a 


ANTIOCH   COLLEGE.  105 

light  and  blessing  to  the  land.  It  is  the  hope  that  this,  the 
highest  success  possible,  will  be  realized  at  Yellow  Springs, 
which  renders  the  College  planted  there  an  object  of  such 
warm  interest  with  its  friends. 

The  embarrassments  under  which  the  College  has  struggled 
ever  since  it  received  the  first  pupil  within  its  walls  would 
have  crushed  an  institution  that  had  not  elements  of  vigor 
within  itself.  These  embarrassments  were  all  pecuniary, 
but  of  the  most  serious  kind.  They  arose  from  two  causes. 
First,  a  want  of  financial  skill  and  care,  which,  without  per- 
mitting the  slightest  imputation  of  dishonesty,  became  the 
occasion  of  perplexity,  loss,  and  final  bankruptcy.  No  one 
has  enriched  or  attempted  to  enrich  himself,  while  the  insti- 
tution has  been  wrecked  upon  palpable  ignorance  and  mis- 
management The  other  cause  was  inherent  in  the  original 
plan.  Because  the  '^scholarship  system,"  as  it  is  called 
in  the  West,  had,  in  one  or  two  instances,  been  attended 
with  temporary  success,  it  was  thought  to  be  adapted  to  the 
circumstances  of  Antioch,  and  was  taken  as  the  foundation 
on  which  its  prosperity  should  repose.  With  an  institution 
of  so  inferior  a  character  that  but  few  would  avail  them- 
selves  of  the  privilege  secured  through  the  purchase  of  a 
scholarship,  this  method  of  raising  a  permanent  fund  might 
not  impose  an  annual  expenditure  exceeding  the  income ; 
but  where  the  quality  of  the  instruction  was  such  as  to 
attract  students,  its  effect  must  be  to  bring  the  College  into 
debt,  since  each  "  scholar  "  cost  the  CoUege  much  more  than 
it  received  on  his  account.  At  Yellow  Springs  it  appeared 
that  the  student  whose  scholarship  yielded  seven  dollars, 
was  taught  at  a  cost  of  about  twenty  dollars.  Such  an 
arrangement  must  sooner  or  later  be  ruinous,  and  the  sooner 
the  ruin  came,  the  less  severe  would  be  the  calamity. 

The  friends  of  Antioch,  however,  endeavored  to  prevent 


106  ANTIOOH  COLLEQB. 

BO  disastrous  a  termmation  of  its  luBtory  by  a  proviaion 
which  should  eaable  the  CoUege  to  bear  this  annual  waste 
of  its  resources.  An  attempt  was  made  to  ruse  am  adequate 
sum  by  means  of  "  Bonds,"  which  should  be  taken  by  the 
"  Christians "  in  different  sections  of  the  country,  with  a 
donation  &om  Unitarians  equal  to  the  difference  between 
the  face  of  the  bonds  and  the  needs  of  ^le  institution.  The 
agreement  became  obligatory,  on  condition  that  the  whole 
amonnt  was  subscribed.  X  failure  in  completing  the  sub- 
scription rendered  the  plan  inoperatiTe,  and  whatever  pay- 
ment shall  at  any  future  time  be  made  on  these  bonds  will 
be  voluntary.  A  large  proportion,  also,  of  the  schoUr^ps 
were  secured  to  the  owners,  not  by~actual  payment,  but  by 
notes  oa  which  interest  was  allowed  to  accumulate.  Tliese 
notes  can  be  collected  by  legal  piocess,  but  not  without 
trouble  and  expense.  Ought  it  to  cause  any  surpriae  that 
Antioch  sunk  under  the  burdens  wLieh  every  day  were 
growing  heavier  ?  Some  of  the  Tmsteea  advised  an  assign- 
ment of  the  property  last  winter,  but  others  hoped  that  the 
crisis  might  yet  be  averted.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Board  in  June  last,  there  was  but  one  opinion  among  the 
Trustees.  The  College  could  go  on  no  longer  under  such 
arrangements.  What  should  be  done  ?  But  one  honest 
course  was  open  for  them  to  pursue.  "The  institution  must 
be  declared  bankrupt,  and  proper  sleps  be  taken  for  a  set- 
tlement of  its  aff^rs.  This  course  they  decided  to  adopt. 
The  only  persons  that  could  complain  of  injustice  would  be 
the  scholarship-holders  who  lost  tbeir  property.  Some  of 
them,  however,  had  already  received  a  pai'lial  equivalent ; 
and  they,  too,  would  really  he  the  persons  most  benefited) 
for  the  law  in  Ohio  rendering  them  liable  to  twice  the 
amount  of  their  nominal  interest,  the  continuance  of  the 
College  on  its  existing  fbandaldon  might  have  subjected  them 


ANTIOOH  COLLEGE.  107 

to  an  unwelcome  assessment  Antioch  College  ^failed," 
and  the  whole  property  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Palmer,  the  late  Treasurer,  as  assignee. 

But  as  a  literary  institution,  so  far  from  proving  a  fidlure, 
it  had  been  eminentlj  successful.  K  provision  could  be 
made  for  the  payment  of  the  debts,  and  the  financial  admin- 
istrati(m  could  be  put  cm  a  new  basis,  its  future  prosperity 
was  almost  sure.  A  suspension  of  the  exercises  for  any 
length  of  time  must  be  prejudicial.  A  ccHnmittee  was  there- 
fore appointed  to  make  provisional  arrangements  for  a  year. 
During  the  present  unsettled  state  of  afiklrs,  a  decrease  of 
students  might  be  expected.  The  receipts,  however,  for 
tuition  and  room-rent  might  safely  be  estimated  as  sufficient 
to  cover  <me  half  of  the  expense.  For  the  other  half  a  sub- 
scription was  immediately  opened,  and  having  been  subse- 
quently completed,  the  College  is  famished  with  the  means 
of  carrying  on  its  operations  for  another  year.  President 
Mann  remains  at  its  head.  Som^changes  have  been  made 
in  the  Board  of  Instruction,  but  the  same  principles  and 
methods  which  have  been  found  so  satisfactory  will  be 
faithfully  maintained. 

To  rescue  the  College  from  the  unhappy  position  into 
which  it  has  been  brought,  and  to  place  it  upon  a  permanent 
basis,  is  the  work  intrusted  to  the  Assignee,  of  whose  in- 
tegrity and*  competency  it  would  be  impertinent  for  me  to 
speak.  It  will  require  time  and  labor,  but  with  the  ener- 
getic co-operation  of  those  to  whom  he  has  a  right  to  look  for 
assistance,  it  can  be  done.  If  the  task  be  difficult,  the  ele- 
ments of  the  problem  are  simple.  The  whole  amount  of 
debt  on  the  1st  of  July  did  not  exceed  a  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars ;  forty  thousand  of  which  were  due 
to  the  "Scholarship  Fund,"  on  account  of  the  money  re- 
ceived for  scholarships,  and  borrowed  from  that  fund  (origi- 


108  ANTIOCH   COLLEGE* 

nally  meant  to  constitute  a  permanent  endowment)  for 
current  expenses.  This  part  of  the  debt  was  cancelled  by 
the  failure  of  the  College  and  the  abolition  of  the  scholar- 
ship system.  As  means  of  relieving  the  College  from  its 
other  liabilities,  amounting  to  eighty  thousand  dollars 
($  120,000  —  $  40,000),  there  are,  in  the  hands  of  the 
Assignee,  first,  the  College  buildings,  with  the  groond  on 
which  they  stand ;  next,  such  ^  scholarship  notes  "  as  have 
not  been  paid ;  and,  lastly,  '^  bonds,"  on  which,  as  I  have 
said,  payment  must  be  voluntary.  The  mnount  that  would 
probably  be  realized,  on  collection  of  the  scholarship  notes, 
was  variously  estimated,  but  by  no  one  was  it  computed  at  less 
than  thirty  thousand  dollars.  Of  the  bonds,  there  is  reason 
for  believing  that  one  half  may  be  paid,  or  forty  thousand 
dollars.  Only  ten  thousand  dollars,  then,  would  be  needed 
to  extinguish  the  debt  ($  80,000  —  [30,000  +  40,000]  ). 
The  buildings  cost  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
cannot  be  worth  less  thaS  sixty  thousand. 

With  these  elements  before  us,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  is 
required  of  the  Unitarian  friends  of  the  CoUege.  As  the 
money  collected  on  the  notes  and  bonds  will  come  &om  the 
"  Christians,"  they  cannot  be  expected  to  furnish  any  fur- 
ther aid.  If  the  result  of  this  collection  should  correspond 
to  our  hope,  Mr.  Palmer  will  need  to  call  on  others  for  but 
ten  thousand  dollars,  to  enable  him  to  satisfy  every  cred- 
itor. 

Once  freed  from  debt,  with  a  new  charter,  and  under  ju- 
dicious management,  Antioch  would  require  only  such  an 
endowment  as  would  prevent  an  accumulation  of  new  debt 
from  the  excess  of  expenditure  over  receipt  A  hundred 
thousand  dollars  would  be  ample  for  this  purpose.  If  one 
half  of  this  amount  were  raised  the  next  summer,  when  we 
may  hope  that  the  present  difficulties  will  have  been  adr 


AHnOCH  OOLLEaE^  109 

justed,  the  other  moiety  might  be  left  to  the  spontaneous 
generosity  of  wealthy  and  liberally  disposed  persons,  fiiends 
of  sound  learning,  pure  morals,  and  unsectarian  religion, 
with  whom  the  College  at  Yellow  Springs  would  every  year 
become  more  an  object  of  notice  and  confidence. 

My  anticipation  of  condensing  this  report  of  my  visit  to 
Antioch  into  a  few  paragraphs  has  been  entirely  defeated, 
by  a  desire  to  give,  not  only  my  impressions,  but  the  grounds 
on  which  they  rest.  Yet,  as  I  read  what  I  have  written,  I 
find  nothing  that  I  am  willing  to  erase,  except  by  your  di- 
rection. I  could  more  easily  add  than  retrench,  for  it  is 
a  grand  theme  on  which  you  give  me  an  opportunity, 
through  your  pages,  to  address  our  friends.  Antioch  is 
worth  vindicating  and  worth  helping.  I  went  thither  favor- 
ably disposed,  but  still  doubtful  how  I  should  be  afiected  by 
a  view  of  its  internal  condition.  I  came  away  without  a 
doubt  that  it  is  an  institution  which  should  be  cherished ;  in 
full  faith  that  it  will  repay  all  the  support  we  may  extend 
to  it,  and  all  the  interest  we  may  take  in  it. 

Yours  respectfully, 

Ezra  S.  Gannett. 

P.  S.  The  form  in  which  I  have  presented  the  plan  for 
relieving  the  College  from  present  and  future  pecuniary  em- 
barrassment differs  from  that  chosen  by  Dr.  Bellows,  in  the 
New  York  Inquirer  of  July  11th.  By  exhibiting  the  same 
plan  through  different  avenues  of  approach,  its  practicability 
may  be  made  more  clear.  The  only  real  diversity  in  our 
statements  consists  in  my  assuming  the  debt  to  be  $  120,000, 
instead  of  $110,000,  and  proposing  an  endowment  of 
$  100,000,  instead  of  $  75,000.  To  many  persons,  Dr. 
Bellows's  statement  would  doubtless  appear  more  lucid  than 

VOL.  V.  NO.   I.  10 


110  EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS. 

mine,  and  I  would  suggest  the  propriety  of  copying  the 
whole  of  the  last  section  of  his  article  on  "Antioch  College," 
entitled  "  Method  of  Rescue,"  in  the  next  or  a  subsequent 
number  of  the  Quarterly  Journal. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

Rev.  Joseph  C.  Smith. 

Our  readers  doubtless  remember  that  Rev.  Joseph  C 
Smith,  formerly  pastor  of  the  Channing  Church  at  Newton 
Corner,  was  appointed  our  Missionary  to  Honolulu,  Sand- 
wich Islands,  and  sailed  for  that  station  last  winter.  A  let- 
ter  lately  received  informs  us  of  his  safe  arrival  at  San 
Francisco,  but  gives,  we  are  sorry  to  add,  less  encouraging 
accounts  of  the  state  of  his  health  than  we  had  hoped  to  re- 
ceive. We  present  the  letter  entire,  assured  that,  while  all 
who  read  it  will  mark  the  resigned  and  devoted  spirit  of  the 
writer,  they  will  also  unite  with  us  in  the  earnest  hope  that 
many  years  of  useful  labor  may  be  accorded  to  our  faithful 
brother. 

**  I  presume  you  will  have  heard  indirectly,  by  the  last  mail 
from  here,  of  my  arrival  in  this  city ;  but  unhappily  without  that 
restoration  to  health  I  had  hoped,  and  my  friends  with  me,  that  I 
should  obtaih.  Very  soon  after  leaving  Boston  I  found  relief  from 
the  bodily  suffering  w|iich  had  so  reduced  my  strength ;  and  with 
a  gradual  abatement  of  some  of  my  worst  symptoms,  I  thanked 
God  and  took  courage.  My  improvement,  though  fluctuating,  was 
marked  and  palpable  enough  to  enable  me  to  enjoy  my  sea  life  ev- 
ery day,  and  feel  confident  of  recovery,  till  a  few  weeks  before  our 
arrival  here,  when  I  was  taken  suddenly  with  a  hemorrhage  from 


BXTBAOTS   FROM   LETTEBS.  Ill 

the  lungs,  yiolent  enough  to  reduce  me  to  as  feeble  a  condition  as 
"when  I  left  home,  bodily,  and,  as  may  be  supposed,  to  a  feebler 
state  of  hope  and  confidence  in  my  final  recovery.  I  began,  how- 
ever, very  soon,  to  recover  from  the  eflfects  of  that  prostration,  and, 
though  very  weak,  was  rapidly  improving  when  I  arrived  in  this 
port.  r  .  .        . 

'*  The  first  effect  of  this  bracing  climate  was  stimulating  and 
highly  encouraging ;  but  since  then  I  have  been  unfavorably  af- 
fected by  the  change  of  the  drinking-water>  which,  when  too  late, 
I  learned  was  not  unusual,  and  by  the  harshness  of  the  winds 
which  blow  daily,  not  being  sufiSciently  strong  in  my  lungs  to  bear 
them.  Had  I  known  at  first  I  should  be  detained  so  long  awaiting 
the  monthly  packet  to  the  Islands,  and  could  have  anticipated  the 
effects  of  the  climate  of  the  city,  which  my  friends  here  thought 
would  do  more  for  me  than  even  the  Islands,  I  might  have  done 
better  to  have  gone  a  little  way  into  the  interior.  However,  for 
some  days  past  I  have  been  sensibly  improving  again,  and  hope  in 
the  course  of  another  week  to  leave  for  my  destination,  and  there 
use  the  best  means  at  command  for  recovery,  which,  I  trust,  will 
be  sufiicient  at  least  to  initiate  a  work  that  by  Divine  grace  shall 
go  on  to  prosper  and  be  permanent.  I  can  do  nothing  of  impor- 
tance in  my  present  state,  but  I  am  not  yet  willing  to  take  my  hand 
from  the  plough  and  turn  back. 

"I  received  very  kind  and  encouraging  letters  here  from  Mr. 
Bond  and  Mr.  Marshall,  welcoming  me  to  their  hospitality,  and 
rejoicing  in  my  coming.  I  am  sorry,  on  my  arrival  there,  they 
will  come  out  to  see  only  '  a  reed  shaken  with  the  wind.'  I  am  free 
to  say  that  my  disappointment  in  regard  to  my  health  is  hardly 
greater  than  in  regard  to  my  *  mission.'  For  I  never  entered  more 
heartily  and  hopefully  into  the  *  work  of  the  Lord '  than  when  I 
set  out  on  this  charge.  Berhaps  I  had  too  much  '  confidence  in 
the  fiesh,'  and  God  has  seen  fit  to  chasten  it  and  take  it  away. 
The  work  He  intends  may  be  best  accomplished  for  me  and  oth- 
ers by  my  entire  removal  from  the  field  of  the  world.  If  so,  I 
murmur  not.  If  I  can  first  be  permitted  to  do  as  much  there  for 
the  beginning  of  the  '  planting  of  our  faith '  as  the  lamented  Har- 
^  rington  did  here,  it  will  be  a  consolation  to  me,  and  perhaps  to  you 
and  the  friends  who  have  been  so  interested  for  me. 


112  EXTRACTS  FBOH  LSTTSBS. 

<*  Mr.  Cutler,  our  excellent  brother  here,  I  see  frequently.  He 
renders  me  such  friendly  services  as  are  in  his  power.  He  gathr 
ers  a  large  congregation,  and  I  am  informed,  on  what  I  deem  good 
authority,  that  his  relations  to  his  people  are  pleasant  and  satisfac- 
tory. He  displays  in  his  person  a  rotundity  of  health  that  is  re- 
freshing to  look  upon,  and  which  I  pray  he  may  long  retain. 

*<  Trusting  I  shall  be  able  to  write  you  something  more  encour- 
aging afler  I  have  been  to  the  Islands,  and  to  promote  in  some 
measure  the  objects  of  the  Association  there,  I  remain 

'*  Sincerely  and  faithfully  yours, 

"Joseph  C.  Smith." 

Rev.  Ephraim  Nute. 

We  give  below  a  short  extract  from  a  late  letter  from 
Mr.  Nute,  conveying  an  intimation  of  his  hopes  of  useful 
action  in  other  places  than  in  Lawrence.  We  will  only  add, 
that  measures  have  been  matured  for  the  sale  of  the  church 
in  Lawrence  to  the  Society  there  worshipping^  which  will 
soon  become,  it  is  believed,  a  self-sustaining  body.  Should 
it  attain  to  this  independent  position,  it  must  become  an 
important  centre  of  influence  throughout  the  neighboring 
region. 

'*  I  feel  myself  more  completely  than  ever  before  cut  off  frmn 
the  old  clerical  and  ecclesiastical  connection.  In  our  more  troub- 
lous times  I  was  frequently  receiving  messages  from  the  brethren, 
and  seemed  to  be  drawn  into  closer  union  and  fellowship  with  the 
noblest  spirits  of  our  communion  than  even  in  New  England.  Nor 
do  I  have  any  misgivings  as  to  the  continuance  of  that  sympathy 
and  earnest  God-speed  now,  nor  do  I  value  it  any  the  lesa  But 
I  would  like  to  know  what  are  the  topics  of  highest  interest  among 
the  brethren  of  late ;  what  great  things  have  been  done,  or  strange 
things,  and  what  shadows  or  aurora  blushes  you  discover  of  com- 
ing etents  in  our  ranks. 

'*  There  are  opportunities  now  opened  to  us  in  several  of  the 
most  promising  of  the  embryo  cities  of  this  Territory  to  secoie 
desirable  building  lots  for  Unitarian  churches. 


EXTBAOTS   FBOM  LBTTEB8.  113 

*'  I  have  been  inyited  to  yisit  two  of  these,  Wyandotte  and  Sum- 
ner, to  make  the  selection  and  secure  the  land.  I  shall  avail  my- 
self of  these  openings  as  soon  as  possible.  Will  it  not  be  well  to 
have  deeds  made  to  th6  American  Unitarian  Association,  or  to 
trustees  in  their  behalf,  to  hold  until  such  time  as  a  Society  of  our 
views  may  be  ready  to  build  ?  This  plan  would  secure  the  land 
from  being  appropriated  by  other  denominations. 

^'  There  is  a  very  general  expectation  of  more  trouble  here  in 
the  fall.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many  that  we  shall  not  get  out  of  our 
house  of  bondage  without  more  bloodshed.  Governor  Walker's 
army  is  yet  encamped  near  us,  and  we  hear  that  warrants  are  out 
for  the  arrest  of  our  leading  men,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  and  that  attempts  are  soon  to  be  made  to  collect  the  taxes. 
The  general  counsel  is  quiet  submission  in  both  contingencies,  un- 
der protest ;  but  there  is  not  much  security  for  infallible  prudence 
and  patience  under  such  a  long  series  of  outrages,  and  the  rash  deed 
of  one  man  may  lead  to  a  general  outbreak.  If.  it  should  come  to 
that,  it  will  be  a  more  serious  affair  than  we  have  had'  before.  I 
pray  we  may  be  saved  from  such  scenes,  and  get  our  rights,  so 
long  wrested  from  us,  in  some  more  peaceable  way. 

<<Ottr  strong-hearted  Brother  Ball  seems  to  be  doing  a  noble 
and  Christ-like  work  in  his  far-distant  field.  I  heartily  respond  to 
his  affectionate  greeting.  I  rejoice  in  the  thought  that  through 
the  far-reaching  agencies  of  our  Association  I  can  feel  the  pulsa- 
tions of  his  earnest  spirit,  though  separated  by  the  whole  diameter 
of  the  globe.  Aside  from  Brother  DalPs  peculiar  fitness  for  the 
work,  I  think  much  of  this  Unitarian  mission  to  India.  Our  field 
of  labor  has  been,  and  should  be,  mostly,  near  home ;  but  to  give 
completeness  to  our  life,  and  the  sublimest  interest  to  our  organ- 
ized missionary  enterprise,  we  need  an  object  of  this  kind.  We 
should  enlarge  our  Christian  sympathies  to  take  in  some  portion 
of  the  most  distant  races,  and  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the  earth. 
We  shall  not  accomplish  any  the  less  near  home  for  all  the  inter- 
est we  may  feel,  and  the  effort  we  may  make  for  the  conversion  of 
India.  I  trust  that  from  our  success  there  we  shall  derive  a  large 
accession  of  force  and  zeal  for  the  work  with  which  we  are 
charged,  — to  convert  the  world  to  the  sound  doctrine  and  the 

10* 


114  EXTRACTS   FBOM   LETTERS. 

divine  life  which  are  according  to  the  teaching  and  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  Again  I  say,  most  heartily  and  hopefully  I  return  Broth- 
er Ball's  greeting.  That  he  may  be  sustained  and  prospered  in 
his  hard  but  glorious  toils  in  the  Redeemer's  service,  is  my  ear- 
nest prayer. 

'<  And  thus  I  desire,  as  I  need,  to  be  remembered  by  all  who 
love  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  '  our  brethren '  in  particular. 

"  Yours  in  brotherly  love, 

"Ephraim  Nute,  Jr." 

Rev.  Mr.  Dall. 

In  former  numbers  of  the  Journal  we  have  given  so  many 
letters  from  Mr.  Dall,  that  his  position  and  duties,  discour- 
agements and  hopes,  must  be  pretty  well  understood.  For 
this  reason  we  shall,  for  the  future,  make  selections  from  his 
letters  of  such  passages  as  may  possess  peculiar  interest, 
though  these  extracts  will,  for  this  number,  be  extensive,  as 
his  correspondence  in  no  quarter  has  been  more  interesting 
than  in  the  last.  Of  his  labors  in  connection  with  public 
schools,  and  of  the  gratitude  felt  in  the  reception  of  our 
books,  we  may  form  some  idea  by  the  following  quotations 
from  a  letter  dated  Calcutta,  April  6,  1857 :  — 

<'  We  have  been  much  cheered  and  strengthened  by  the  arrival 
of  your  letter,  dated  February  10,  1857.  I  wrote  immediately  to 
Madras,  to  convey  your  message  to  Brother  Roberts.  It  is  very 
pleasant  to  find  that  the  Ameiican  Unitarian  Association  caU  my 
visit  to  Madras  well-timed.  We  are  happily  agreed  on  that^  as 
upon  other  points.  God  grant  it  be  always  so  !  The  increase  of 
our  Society  in  Calcutta  is  very,  very  slow,  though  the  influence 
of  our  mission,  by  publications,  by  the  dissemination  of  Channing's 
Works,  &c.,  seems  daily  on  the  increase.  Those  who  do  join  us 
are  mostly  young  men  of  native  blood,  many  of  whom  have  hardly 
bread  to  eat.  These  buy  the  books  you  send  me,  and  perhaps  sub- 
scribe four  rupees  a  year,  so  as  to  be  entitled  to  whatever  tracts 
we  print.    Thus  our  *  cash  in  hand '  is  rather  decreasing  than  in- 


BXTBAOTS  FBOM   LETTEBS.  115 

creasing.  I  have  seyeral  interesting  disciples,  Hindoos,  whom  I 
keep  near  me  by  taking  an  occasional  lesson  from  them  in  Benga- 
lee or  Sanscrit,  more  for  the  sake  of  the  influence  I  thus  gain  over 
them  than  for  any  great  good  obtained  from  them.  Some  of  them 
are  almost  outcasts,  most  of  them  have  their  homes  full  of  idols,- 
and,  though  college  students,  they  have  to  be  kept  out  of  actual 
sufl!ering  by  the  driblets  of  my  purse.  There  is  no  mission  in 
India,  that  I  know  of,  which  does  not  give  some  sort  of  a  comfort-* 
able  home  to  its  converts,  whether  they  be  employed  in  active  ser- 
vice or  not.  We  have  as  yet  no  mission  '  Campagna '  within 
which  to  shelter  them;  so  that  I  have  felt  obliged  to  aid,  more 
or  less  regulaily,  ten  or  a  dozen  persons,  as  a  sort  of '  out-door  pen- 
sioners.' Eight  of  these  constitute  the  family  of  Taruck  Nanth 
Mookergea,  the  lessor e  Pundit,  —  Gve  of  whose  children  were 
christened  in  our  Mission-Room.  I  have  been  seeking  to  make 
arrangements  this  day  for  the  bringing  up  of  his  two  older  girls 
in  the  school  and  family  of  a  Boston  lady  who  has  spent  many 
years  in  Calcutta.  When  you  remember  that  there  is  scarcely 
such  a  thing  in  India  as  an  educated  Hindoo  woman,  you  may  con- 
ceive the  interest  I  feel  in  an  experiment  like  this.  I  shall  keep 
a  lynx  eye  upon  the  ship  *  Art  Union.'  Among  the  good  things 
she  brings,  I  trust  will  be  at  the  least  ten  or  a  dozen  sets  of  Chan- 
ning's  Works.  Of  the  Memoirs  and  the  Selected  Volume  we  have 
enough  for  the  present,  —  as  also  of  Dr.  Eliot's  volume,  enough. 
God  bless  the  Sandwich  Island  Mission!  He  has  heard  our 
prayer  for  it,  and  it  is  realized.  Now  may  the  hearts  of  all  good 
Unitarians  open  towards  it.  May  they  *  scatter '  for  it,  and  *  in- 
crease '  by  it.  My  next  petition  is  for  a  Unitarian  Mission  in 
Africa.  Though  our  glorious  '  Nute '  Mission  is  in  part  for  the 
African  race,  I  shall  not  be  content  till  I  see  a  missionary  of  our 
faith  in  Algeria,  Liberia,  or  Natal.  God  hasten  the  day  for  *  Ethi- 
opiai,'  now  that  Livingstone  has  freshly  unfocked  its  gates.  I 
shall  write  at  once  to  Brother  Smith,  Honolulu.  Please  tell  rae 
the  name  of  that  lady  of  Dr.  Gannett's  church  who  has  made  me 
a  life-member  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  so  that  I 
may  have  it  in  my  power  to  express  to  her  my  thanks.  I  rejoice 
in  all  your  hopes  and  expectations  for  the  prosperity  and  peace  of 


( 


116  EXTBAGTS   FBOM   LBTTEBS. 

my  dear  native  land.  Let  her  not  forget  that  her  righteousness 
must  go  first,  in  order  that  *  the  glory  of  the  Lord '  may  follow 
and  wait  upon  her  and  bless  her.  Believe  me,  we  do  not  forget, 
in  India,  to  pray  for  the  slave  in  America.  We  have  few  here 
that  need  be  so  degraded  as  he.  God  be  gracious  to  free  the 
American  slave ! 

<'My*  connection  with  schools  and  school-boys  seems  steadily 
to  increase.  Wealthy  *  orthodox '  Hindoos,  which  means  idola- 
ters, of  course,  —  men  who  really  hate  the  Trinitarian  missionary, 
and  will  not  allow  his  foot  over  their  threshold,  —  are  more  and 
more  calling  me  to  come  and  examine  their  schools,  award  prizes, 
address  the  pupils,  &c.  I  lately  spent  a  long  (and  fearfully  hot) 
day  most  delightfully  with  the  school  of  a  wealthy  Leveindar,  six 
miles  from  Calcutta,  at  Cossipore.  I  found  one  hundred  pupils, 
bright  boys  from  ten  to  eighteen  years,  among  the  older  of  whom 
I  distributed  to  their  eager  and  outstretched  hands  three  or  four 
dozen  of  our  tracts  and  pamphlets.  The  Training-School  at  lonye 
(pronounced  lon-ni),  twelve  miles  from  Calcutta,  has  engaged  my 
services  for  Monday  next.  Here  again  I  shall  carry  plenty  of  ooi 
good  words  of  Christ  in  English  and  Bengalee ;  among  them  not 
less  than  one  hundred  copies  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  Bengalee,  — 
since  there  are  two  hundred  pupils  there.  In  all  these  school  vis- 
itations the  teachers  fill  up  my  every  odd  minute,  and  even  steal 
minutes  from  the  midst  of  the  class-examinations,  to  inquire  about 
*  the  religious  principles  in  which  I  believe.'  The  hunger  for  re^ 
ligious  truth  in  India  is  something  unaccountable.  There  is  noth- 
ing like  it  in  Europe  or  America.  I  have  direct  correspondence, 
&c.  with  not  less  than  a  dozen  schools,  containing,  in  the  average, 
one  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  young  men.  The  Metropolitan 
College,  which  has  made  me,  this  year,  its  Historical  Examiner, 
has  seven  hundred  students.  This,  of  course,  I  do  not  include 
among  *  my '  schools.  Out  of  three  letters  lately  received  from 
teachers  of  these  schools,  let  me  detain  you  with  three  sentences 
of  quotations.  First,  from  Bali :  *  Dear  Sir, — The  Tracts  you  left 
with  us  are  all  distributed.  Please  make  over  about  two  dozens, 
altogether,  of  the  four  kinds.  To  yours,  truly,  with  others  of  the- 
Bali  School.    Wooma  Churn  Bannergea.    March  30, 1857.*    The 


EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTERS.  117 

next  is  from  Bhagulpere,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  northwest 
of  Calcutta.  *  Dear  and  Reverend  Brother, — By  your  letters,  &c. , 
I  am  proud  that  I  am  become  a  means  of  instruction  to  my  friends. 
Will  you  kindly  send  me  some  copies  of  **  Early  Piety,"  and 

**  The  Child's  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,"  (in  Bengalee) 

Yours  in  the  faith  of  God.  Woomesk  Chunder  Sea.  March  23, 
1857.'  The  .third  is  from  Groberdanga,  whither  books  and  Tes- 
taments have  been  sent  repeatedly.  It  speaks  for  the  school, 
whose  boys  wished  to  pay  my  expenses  if  I  would  visit  them,  out 
of  their  pocket-money,  —  't  is  four  hundred  miles  north  of  Calcutta. 
It  is  dated,  '  March  15th,  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  My  dear  Sir, 
My  boys  are  very  clamorous  to  introduce  the  !New  Testa- 
ment as  a  class-book;  but  I  am  clogged  and  pinioned.  What 
shall  I  say  of  such  a  proposal  to  an  Orthodox  Hindoo?  (their  chief 
patron  next  to  government).  What  I  want  to  know,  most  rever- 
end Sir,  is,  if  my  school  cannot  be  brought  under  your  mission's 
influence,  and  be  made  a  provincial  Unitarian  school?  I  remain, 
with  sincere  regards,  ever  your  most  obedient  servant,  Mohen- 
dro  Nanth  Mookergea.'  All  I  can  say  to  this  proposal  is,  be 
cautious  and  bide  your  time.  God  will  open  the  way.  Love 
to  aU." 

In  a  letter  dated  April  22, 1857,  Mr.  Dall  writes  of  the 
loss  he  had  experienced  by  the  return  to  England  of  Hodg- 
son Ptatt,  Esq.,  of  whose  philanthropic  influence  in  India 
he  speaks  in  the  highest  terms.  An  extract,  relating  to  a 
barbarous  custom  more  fully  described  in  a  former  letter, 
will  also  gain  the  attention  of  the  reader :  — 

"  The  mail-steamer  that  left  Calcutta  for  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
West  a  fortnight  since,  bore  away  with  it  a  good  man,  a  devoted 
lover  of  India.  No  ope  on*  this  side  of  the  world  has  lavished 
time,  thought,  money,  health,  more  generously  than  Hodgson 
Pratt,  and  rejoiced  to  do  it  all  for  those  who  could  pay  him  noth- 
ing back.  The  joy  of  unrequited  good,  and  that  only,  has  been 
his  reward.  His  case  seems  to  me  to  present  one  of  the  finest  il- 
lustrations or  expositions  of  a  text  seldom  well  understood,  namely, 


118  EXTBACTS   FROM  LETTERS. 

'  Make  to  yourself  friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteon^ess, 
that,  when  they  fail,  they  may  receive  you  into  everlasting  habita- 
tions.' Mr.  Pratt  has  received  what  the  East  India  Company's 
servants  call  a  moderate  salary  of  about  $  800  a  month,  or  nearly 
$10,000  a  year,  as  Inspector  of  Education  in  the  Lower  Provinces 
of  Bengal ;  co-working  meanwhile  with  five  or  six  other  inspec- 
tors, similarly  paid  for  their  similar  charge  of  other  provinces  of 
British  India ;  working  also  with  a  Greneral  Superintendent  of 
Education,  who  is  paid  Rs.  2,000  a  month,  or  $  12,000  a  year. 
No  man  has  known  better  than  Mr.  Pratt  that  the  Indian  revenues, 
out  of  which  his  salary  was  paid,  were  drawn  in  part  from  the 
sale  of  opium,  largely  raised  in  Hindostan  for  the  express  object 
of  being  smuggled  into  China.  None  have  known  better  than  he, 
that  the  land  tax  was  raised  by  much  harsh  treatment  of  the  tillers 
of  the  soil,  the  '  peeled '  and  oflen-tortured  ryots.  Though  it 
is  beyond  dispute  that  the  British  rule  is,  on  the  whole,  a  bles^ng 
to  India,  every  man  knows  that  awful  abuses  of  all  sorts  are  at 
present  inseparable  from  the  collection  of  that  revenue  which  goes 
to  pay  all  the  *  covenanted '  and  *  uncovenanted '  servants  of  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Pratt  is  a  '  covenanted  '  civil  servant,  who  has 
secured  the  promotions  and  income  of  a  ten  years'  term  of  service. 
He  has  now  relinquished  his  post  of  Inspector  of  Education,  and 
*  gone  home  on  sick  leave '  (for  three  years,  if  he  choose  to  ab- 
sent himself  for  that  term) ,  with  the  view  of  returning  to  take  a 
higher  post,  with  of  course  a  higher  salary.  Being  now  about 
ten  years  my  junior,  or  about  thirty  years  of  age,  he  has,  as  you 
see,  very  high  prospects  before  him  should  his  life  be  spared.  To 
return  now  to  my  text,  before  passing  to  other  matters  of  which  I 
wish  to  speak,  Mr.  Pratt  receives  gladly  the  government  award 
for  his  services.  He  cannot  help  its  being  *  the  mammon  of  un- 
righteousness.' What  he  can  do  and  has  been  doing,  almost  to 
the  letter  of  the  Saviour's  command,* is  to  give  his  salary,  wisely 
yet  without  stint,  *  to  the  poor,'  or  to  all  sorts  of  institutions  that 
conspire  to  better  the  condition  of  the  masses,  —  to  teach  them 
those  principles  which  are  by  and  by  to  kill,  to  the  very  roots,  the 
traffic  in  opium  and  other  evils.  My  impression  is,  that  he  has 
given  away  full  two  thirds  of  his  salary,  if  not 'more,  to  edu- 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS.  119 

cational  and  benevolent  enterprises;  though  no  man  can  say 
exactly,  because  he  never  lets  his  left  hand  know  what  good  thing 
his  right  hand  is  doing.  Thus  it  is  that  I  have  never  known,  in 
the  case  of  any  man,  a  finer  illustration  of  the  text,  *•  Make  to  your- 
selves friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness/  If  the  sight  of 
a  good  man  be  God's  chief  instrument  of  conversion,  Hodgson 
Pratt  has  been  the  instrument  of  many  conversions  in  India.  I 
need  not  say  that  the  loss  to  our  mission  is  not  likely  to  be  soon 
made  up.  He  did  not  say  to  me  that  he  expected  to  aid  the 
mission  pecuniarily  during  his  absence,  though  it  is  possible  that 
he  may  do  so.  Tou  must  tell  our  friends  at  home  not  to  desert  us 
now.  Four  or  five  of  our  few  subscribers  have  been  taken  away, 
and  no  money  has  yet  come  to  us  from  England.  It  is  clear  that 
we  have  a  great  work  to  do,  and  for  a  few  years  to  come,  at  least, 
hardly  anything  else  to  do  than  the  systematic  dissemination,  in 
English  and  in  the  principal  native  tongues,  of  our  best  Unitarian 
books  and  tracts,  and  the  unperverted  New  Testament. 

'*  The  day  for  our  needing  a  chapel  in  Calcutta  is  far  off.  Month 
afler  month  new  cities,  colleges,  and  schools  are  opening  a 
communication  with  our  mission.  I  long  to  visit  some  of  these 
places  and  talk  with  those  who  by  letter  seem  deeply  interested  in 
our  cause.  If  it  is  all  talk,  I  shall  be  more  likely  to  discover  it 
on  the  spot.  In  such  places  as  I  have  been  able  to  visit,  I  have 
thus  far  been  agreeably  disappointed  in  the  interest,  and  I  may 
almost  say  enthusiasm,  exhibited  to  possess  the  new  truth  I 
brought  with  me  by  voice  and  type.  I  am  more  and  more  per- 
suaded that  our  present  position  in  India  is  essentially  that  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  himself,  when  he  did  nothing  but  preach  and  teach  in 
their  cities;  except  that  he  sent  disciples  before  him,^two  and 
two,  into  the  places  whither  he.  himself  would  come.  I  say,  let 
us  closely  follow  his  method  of  planting  the  Gospel  in  Palestine. 
Our  Mission-Room,  located  just  on  the  edge  of  the  native  portion 
of  the  city  of  Calcutta,  is  important,  as  it  gives  us  a  pivot  to  turn 
on.  It  is  very  efficient  as  a  rendezvous,  a  centre  of  effort  and  of 
instruction,  where  disciples  continue  to  come  daily  to  read,  study, 
and  converse.  Such  disciples  as  come  from  a  distance  I  am  now 
able  to  entertain  with  food,  and  occasionally  with  rest  over  night. 


120  EXTS1.CTS   FBOM  LETTEB8. 

—  as  I  could  not  while  remaining  at  Mountain's  Hotel,  my  xesi- 
dence  up  to  the  Ist  of  January  last.  This  directness  and  ease  of 
access  to  a  missionary  at  all  hours,  I  find,  is  particularly  grateful 
to  the  natives,  as  it  appears  not  to  have  been  generally  allowed. 
Indeed,  I  myself  have  found  it  necessary  to  devote  the  morning 
hours  exclusively  to  study  and  writing,  and  to  allow  only  silent 
reading,  and  not  conversation,  to  such  disciples  as  call  befiire  three 
o'clock  P.  M. 

*'  The  time  forbids  my  writing  you  as  I  intended  about  the 
Hook-Swinging  Festival,  the  Cherruck  Poojah,  which  has  just 
now  been  freshly  doing  its  work  of  brutalizing  humaaity.  This 
year  I  went  out  of  the  city,  where  the  crowd  was  not  so  great ; 
and  there  seemed  to  be  an  emulation  among  the  various  operators 
in  the  barbarity  to  give  me  the  most  intimate  possible  inspection 
of  it.  The  poor  wretch  who  was  to  swing,  drugged  with  opium 
(as  I  suppose),  threw  himself  on  his  hands  and  knees  directly  at 
my  feet ;  the  priest  of  Kalee  put  the  fiesh-hooks  into  my  hands  for 
inspection,  before  they  were  driven  through  ;  and  I  even  bent  over 
the  sufferer  (that  I  might  know  it  all)  when  the  skin  was  pinched 
up  from  just  below  the  shoulder-blades  on  either  side,  and  hook.afier 
hook  pressed  through  the  quivering  flesh.  This  was  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  Cherruch  Garch,  the  sacred  tree.  The  naked 
devotee  was  then  driven,  by  the  inserter  of  the  hooks,  as  boys 
drive  boys  horse-fashion,  through  the  crowd,  by  the  thongs  that 
dangled  from  the  lacerated  back.  The  poor  fellow  danced  as  if 
he  felt  no  pain.  Though  when  he  was  fairly  at  the  top  of  the 
ladder,  and  launched  off  resting  upon  the  hooks  (and  the  cloth 
band  that  partly  held  his  weight) ,  he  tied  his  legs  into  a  knot  with 
apparent  agony,  and  spent  all  the  time  that  I  could  bear  to  look 
at  him  in  beating  his  breast  and  clenching  his  hands,  as  if  in 
prayer.  Of  all  the  (five)  instances  of  hook-swinging  that  I  have 
seen,  this  was  by  far  the  most  seemingly  religious.  When  I  was 
informed,  however,  that  these  creatures  —  two  of  whom  were  to 
swing  at  once  —  were  stimulated  to  the  sacrifice  by  the  intoxi- 
cating drugs  offered  them,  and  by  the  large  money  bribe  of  four 
annas,  or  about  twelve  and  a  half  cents,  I  set  the  whole  thing 
down  as  an  atrocity  that  had  no  redeeming  feature  whatever.    I 


EXTRACTS  FBOM   LETTBBS.  121 

rejoice  to  see  that  the  missionaries  and  the  press  are  moving  this 
year  to  circumscribe  if  not  to  prevent  it.  May  Heaven  prosper 
them!" 

The  J07  felt  in  the  decision  of  the  Executive  Committee, 
to  send  to  India  for  two  young  men  to  come  to  this  country 
to  be  educated,  is  expressed  in  the  following  extract  from  a 
letter  dated  May  2, 1857  :  — 

*'  Yours  of  March  10th  has  just  reached  me,  for  the  contents  of 
which  I  am  deeply  grateful.  It  is  with  abundant  thanksgiving  to 
Almighty  God  that  we  have  read  the  important  words,  *The 
Board  unanimously  voted,  that  the  Secretary  be  instructed  to 
write  to  Mr.  Dall  that  we  will  receive  two  young  men  and  educate 
them,'  under  the  conditions  that  you  proceed  to  detail.  Our  mis- 
sion is  to  be  responsible  for  their  delivery  to  you  in  Boston ; 
supplying  a  full  outfit  of  woollen  clothing,  and  all  that  may  be 
necessary  for  a  four  months'  voyage  of  nineteen  thousand  miles. 
Forsaking  everything  for  this  sacred  object,  they  will  lose  what- 
ever they  might  have  inherited  or  invested  in  the  family  property, 
and  be  able  to  give  us  nothing  but  themselves.  The  privileges 
you  offer,  nevertheless,  are  so  great,  extending  even  to  three  years' 
training  and  support  at  Meadville  or  Cambridge,  and  a  free  passage 
back  to  Calcutta,  that  we  shall  together  move  sea  and  land  to  ac- 
complish so  glorious  an  object.  I  am  daily  expecting  a  letter  from 
Takoor  Das  Roy,  in  reply  to  some  questions  I  put  to  him  lately 
concerning  the  possible  effect  upon  his  own  mind  of  a  two  or  three 
years'  absence  from  Bengal,  under  influences  that  might  act  unfa- 
vorably upon  the  humility  of  an  Asiatic,  who  might  be  made  a  *  lion ' 
of  in  spite  of  himself.  He  promised  to  give  the  matter  his  most 
serious  consideration,  and  then  let  me  know.  We  shall,  of  course, 
be  very  deliberate  in  taking  so  important  a  step ;  and  should  we 
receive  help  from  God  to  accomplish  it,  it  will  probably  be  at  least 
one  full  year  before  you  will  be  able  to  take  any  convert  of  ours 
by  the  hand.  In  order  not  to  be  struck  down  at  once  by  the  rigors 
of  a  New  England  winter,  they  must  contrive  to  leave  Bengal  for 
Boston  some  time  in  the  month  of  January  or  February. 

VOL.  V.   NO.  I.  II 


122  SXTBACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

"  As  yoa  see  by  our  last  Half-yearly  Report,  we  hare  now  a 
large  and  reliable  Committee,  though  illness  has  withdrawn  Mr. 
Pratt  to  England.  Mr.  Samuel  Smith,  a  man  of  wide  experience 
and  with  a  large  Irish  heart,  a  leading  observer,  writer,  and 
speaker  on  Indian  afiairs  for  many  years,  and  a  Unitarian  from 
early  conviction,  is  the  '  senior  elder '  of  our  Calcutta  church,  and 
the  chairman  of  our  Committee.  Mr.  F.  F.  Wills,  the  leading 
partner  of  one  of  the  well-established  and  wealthy  Americaa 
houses  in  Calcutta,  is  also  on  our  Conmiittee.  We  should,  of  eoorse, 
have  these  our  *  counsellors '  together,  and  only  move  in  '  the 
safety  '  of  their  united  opinions.  We  anticipate  the  return,  also, 
of  our  excellent  brother,  Mr.  Richard  Lewis,  (now  perhaps  at  your 
side,)  within  three  or  four  months  at  furthest.  So  that  you  have 
little  reason  to  fear  an  over-hasty  move  in  a  matter  so  vitally  touch- 
ing the  future  success  of  our  Indian  Mission.  Immediately  on  the 
receipt  of  your  letter  and'of  the  Board's  generous  vote,  I  sought 
out  the  Rev.  James  Long,  of  the  Church  of  England  MissicHi,  —  a 
man  who  stands  among  the  very  first  practical  philanthropists  in 
India.  He  said  that  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  a  voyage  to  Amer- 
ica and  a  few  years'  stay  in  the  United  States  would  vastly  enlarge 
the  horizon  of  a  Bengalee,  and  make  him  a  far  more  efficient  man. 
Still  he  sided  largely  with  Mr.  Pratt,  and  said  that  there  was  not 
a  little  danger  of  widening  the  breach  that  now  yawns  between 
the  educated  and  the  uneducated  classes  in  this  country.  There 
was  a  chance,  he  said,  that  a  highly  educated  planter's  son  in  the 
Southern  States  of  America  might  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  re- 
ligious welfare  of  the  negro  slaves  and  their  children,  but  how 
fearful  were  the  odds  against  it !  Everything  depends  upon  the 
man  selected  for  the  duty.  The  Asiatics,  as  a  general  rule, 
greatly  lack  the  higher  and  finer  feelings  of  human  nature.  A 
well-rooted  benevolence  and  a  reliable  truthfulness  are  hard  to  find 
in  Asia.  There  are  individual  exceptions,  but  it  needs  a  rare 
vigilance  to  detect  them.  The  burden  of  the  testimony  of  the 
Rev.  T.  Sandys,  also  of  the  *  Church  Mission,'  tended  to  corrobo- 
rate that  of  Rev.  Mr.  Long.  It  appears  that  the  missionaries 
have  thus  far  had  very  few  high-class,  or  high-caste  converts, 
i.  e.  men  of  any  intellectual  vigor.    Very  few  of  these  have  been 


BXTBACTS  FROM  LBTTSBS.  123 

Veiling  to  go  to  England.  And  as  Bishop's  College  was  erected 
by  the  Church  to  train  up  native  preachers  in  the  suburbs  of  Cal- 
cutta, they  have  not  encouraged  the  idea  of  their  going  to  England. 
Finally,  such  as  have  worked  their  way  to  England  (as  gentleman's 
•servants  or  otherwise)  have  seemed  to  be  all  the  better,  and  certain- 
ly none  tiie  worse  for  it,  —  such  as  Rev.  Krishna  Mohun  Banner- 
gea,  the  present  chaplain  of  Bishop's  College  (who  was  sent 
home),  and  a  Burmese  student,  who  worked  his  way,  and  is  now  in 
England,  of  whom,  from  his  college  there,  the  best  things  are  re- 
ported. It  occurs  to  me,  that,  even  should  there  be  little  ultimate 
gain  (contrary  to  my  belief)  from  the  preaching  of  our  sent-home 
converts,  that  the  experiment  is  still  worthy  of  us,  as  servants  of 
Jesus  Christ.  You,  at  home,  will  at  least  have  thus  gained  an 
opportunity  to  examine  closely  such  specimens  of  the  material  on 
which  we  propose  to  work,  as  will  be  an  invaluable  aid  towards 
a  wise  outlay  of  *  our  Lord's  money.'  Though  it  may  be  seven 
or  eight  months  before  we  can  sJiow  you  the  men,  — '  the  brethren 
from  Asia,'  —  I  hope,  believe,  and  pray  that  my  life  may  be 
spared  to  see  them  start  from  this  city  for  you ;  and  then  if  I  can 
take  them  by  the  hand  on  their  return  with  one  or  more  *  brethren 
from  America,^  I  shall  say,  *  Now,  Lord,  lettest  thou  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation  !  ' 

**  I  rejoice,  and  so  do  we  all,  as  we  read  together  your  precious 
words  afler  morning  service,  in  what  you  say  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association  as  shooting  out  its  branches,  and  striking 
deeper  root.  '  He  that  watereth  shall  be  himself  watered  as  a 
garden,'  is  the  promise  of  our  God  and  Saviour.  Yes,  it  must  be 
fulfilled." 

Our  next  letter  from  Mr.  Dall  is  dated  May  16,  1857, 
and  opens  with  an  account  of  a  beautiful  act  on  the  part  of 
our  friends  in  Calcutta,  which  shows  that  their  faith  is  "  not 
in  word  only." 

"  Providence  has  just  now  opened  to  us  an  opportunity  to  show 
the  catholicity  of  our  Christian  faith  by  our  works,  and  I  rejoice 
to  say  that  we  have  not  been  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  pointing. 
Our  little  church  has  just  sent  235  rupees  to  our  Trinitarian 


124  EXTBACTS  FBOM  LETTEBS. 

brethren,  the  Rangoon  Missionaries  and  their  converts;  200  of 
which  you  will  see  publicly  acknowledged  in  the  '  Hurkani ' 
that  comes  by  this  mail.  A  disastrous  fire  has  just  swept  off 
three  fourths  of  the  city  of  Rangoon.  The  American  mission 
there  has  lost  its  church  edifice,  its  native  chapel,  the  dwellings  of. 
its  converts,  and  much  beside.  A  few  days  ago  an  appeal  was  out 
in  their  behalf,  and  for  aid  to  all  the  sufi^erers.  Heathen  and  Chris- 
tian alike.  Within  the  past  six  months  our  little  flock  had 
given  500  rupees  to  Madras,  100  to  Salem,  and  100  to  Bali ;  bat 
nothing  daunted,  I  opened  a  new  page  in  our  donation-book,  and 
headed  it  with  the  following  words :  '  Fire  at  Rangoon.  — •  The 
American  Missionaries  heavy  sufi^erers.  —  The  English  residents 
of  Calcutta  are  sending  them  aid.  —  We  will  give,  in  the  name  of 
the  American  Unitarian   Christians  of  Calcutta,  the  following 

sums.' In  less  than  an  hour  I  returned  to  my  rooai  with 

200  rupees  in  cash.  As  the  call  was  pressing,  from  our  houseless 
(Trinitarian)  brethren,  2,000  or  3,000  miles  to  the  southeast  of 
us,  I  at  once  wrote  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cuthbert,  of  Calcutta,  that  he 
could  take  and  transmit  the  money.  What  has  since  come  in  will 
speedily  follow  the  first  remittance.  I  will  not  say  what  were  the 
surmises  of  one  or  two  of  us  about  a  High-Churchman,  like 
Mr.  Cuthbert,  declining  '  Unitarian  Christian  '  aid.  What  trans- 
pired has  given  a  rebuke  to  our  occasional  want  of  faith  in  sach 
brethren.  It  should  appear  that  whatever  might  be  the  reoepticm 
of  *  Channing's  Works,'  or  of  any  other  good  Unitarian  word, 
a  good  Unitarian  act  is  not  misinterpretable.  In  reply  to  my  note 
to  Mr.  Cuthbert,  came  at  once  the  following  receipt :  — 

"  *  Received,  with  thanks,  from  the  Rev.  C.  Dall,  Company's 
Rupees  two  hundred,  being  a  gift  from  the  American  Unitarian 
Christians  of  Calcutta  to  their  Christian  brethren,  sufferers  by  the 
fire  at  Rangoon.  G.  G.  Cuthbert. 

"  *  Calcutta,  May  11,  1857.' 

"  So  far,  so  good.  We  have  shown  at  least  that  we  can  help 
build  Trinitarian  chapels  in  Asia,  and  that,  with  all  who  love  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,  our  *  prayers  and  alms-deeds '  go 
forth.  We  rejoice  in  the  opportunity.  *  According  to  what  we 
have,'  we  have  met  it  well. 


EXTSACTS  FBOH  LETTERS.  125 

*'  Eveiything  is  going  forward  as  usual  with  our  mission.  lo- 
quirers  continue  coming  in.  Two  firesh  disciples  presented  them- 
selves this  morning,  saying  that  they  had  heen  eight  years  pupils 
of  the  London  Missionary  School.  They  conversed  for  half  an 
hour  upon  the  great  central  truths  of  a  Unitarian  Gospel,  and  then 
took  away  Eliot's  Doctrinal  Discourses,  and  one  much-read  re- 
print of  '  One  Hundred  Scriptural  Arguments  for  a  Unitarian 
GrospeL'  Two  other  disciples,  new-comers  also,  are  now  at  my 
side,  students  of  the  Ooterparah  School.  They  also  take  Tracts 
for  reading,  and  a  few  for  distribution  to  their  fellow-students. 
Seven  disciples  are  all  that  have  called  to-day,  thus  far.  An  in- 
teresting man,  Roop  Chand,  has  been  repeatedly  with  me  of 
late,  a  native  Christian,  assistant  preacher  of  the  Howrah  Mission. 
fie  says  he  has  become  fully  convinced  that  the  third  person  of 
the  Trinity  is  simply  the  Father,  and  he  is  now  almost  as  certain 
that  Jesus  is  wholly  subject  and  subordinate  to  him.  To  retain 
his  place  much  longer  at  Howrah,  he  says,  is  impossible,  though 
he  is  at  his  wits'  end  to  know  which  way  to  turn  for  earthly  help. 
He  is  seemingly  a  devout  and  sincere  man,  upwards  of  thirty 
years  old.  Would  that  we  had  the  means  of  engaging  him  at 
once  in  our  service ! 

**  Our  earnest  seeker,  Motee  Lall,  has  just  made  his  escape  from 
Bali,  after  ten  weeks'  incarceration  under  lock  and  key  of  his  idol- 
atrous friends.  He  broke  out  through  a  window,  with  the  aid  of 
an  uncle,  and  came  directly  to  me.  He  has  some  property  of  his 
own,  and  hopes  to  rent  a  tenement  for  himself  and  his  wife  and 
wife's  mother,  who,  he  says,  have  determined  to  follow  his  for- 
tunes. He  went  the  day  before  yesterday  for  his  wife,  and  was 
also  to  bring  500  rupees  with  him  to  deposit  in  the  Savings  Bank  ; 
but  as  he  did  not  come  to  me  yesterday,  I  fear  they  have  again 
imprisoned  him.  Indeed,  the  struggles  of  men  for  the  Gospel,  all 
around  me,  frequently  bring  to  mind  its  early  *  bonds.' 

"  I  had  a  very  curious  conversation,  a  few  mornings  since,  with 
the  old  Calcutta  Rajah  Radakant  Deb,  of  whom  Bishop  Heber 
speaks  in  his  journal.  He  has  a  splendid  establishment,  Cam- 
pagna  Palace,  &c.,  near  the  heart  of  the  native  town.  He  is 
usually  reputed  one  of  the  finest  living  specimens  of  a  sincere, 

11* 


126  EXTRACTS   FBOM  LETTEBS. 

highly  educated  idolater  ;  and  I  went  expecting  to  find  him  a  very 
eloquent  pleader  for  the  worship  of  stocks  and  stones.  In  this  I 
was  disappointed.  He  began  the  conversation  with  a  hearty  as- 
severation of  the  existence  of  only  one  God.  I  asked  what  name 
he  would  apply  to  the  only  Grod,  and  was  not  a  little  pleased  to 
hear  him  say  that  his  name  was  not  *■  Brhum,'  the  abyss  of  being, 
out  of  whom  come  Bramhk,  Vishnu,  and  Shiva,  (Creator,  Pre- 
server, and  Destroyer,)  the  Hindoo  Trinity.  *  No,'  he  said, 
*  his  name  was  Porom-Eeshwar,'  (the  Most  High,)  which  I  recog- 
nized at  once  as  the  Bengalee  name  for  God,  which  the  missiona- 
ries of  all  sects  of  Christians  unite  in  according  to  Jehovah,  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  So  far  I  had  reason 
to  be  well  pleased  with  the  Eajah's  faith,  and  almost  began  to 
hope  that  the  reading  of  Christian  books  had  taken  efiect  upon 
him  as  he  approached  the  close  of  a  long  life.  It  was  near  sun- 
rise, and  as  we  rested  on  the  balustrade  of  his  palace  Terandah 
and  surveyed  the  beauty  on  every  hand,  I  asked  the  old  man  what 
temple  that  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  pond.  Had  he  erected 
that  to  Porom-Eeshwar?  *  No,  no,  that  was  to  Krishna.'  *  And 
who  is  Krishna  ? '  said  I.  '  One  of  the  sixteen  chief  incarna- 
tions,' he  replied.  '  What  attribute  of  Porom-Eeshwar  does 
Krishna  embody  ? '  I  asked.  He  replied,  *  O  that  is  the  Vedan- 
tist  system,  that  looks  for  special  truths  in  special  deities.  There 
is  no  need  of  that,  since  everything  is  Grod,  one  thing  as  much  as 
another.'  The  Rajah  soon  fell  into  the  grossest  pantheism,  saying, 
<  I  am  God,  you  are  God,  this  pillar  is  God,  that  stone  is  God.  Let 
a  man  worship  what  he  will,  he  cannot  help  worshipping  God  all 
the  same.' 

*'  I  may  hope  to  finish  my  account  of  this  conversation  on 
idolatry  in  another  letter." 

A  letter  dated  June  4,  1857,  besides  several  pleasant 
personal  allusions,  contains  much  information  in  regard  to 
the  state  of  things  in  India  which  led  to  the  late  revolt  in 
that  country.  Regarded  in  connection  with  the  events  that 
are  now  there  transpiring,  this  letter  will  justly  be  regarded 
as  of  deep  and  painful  interest. 


SXTBACTS  PBOM  JLBTTEBS.  127 

*'  We  were  gladdened  yesterday  by  the  arrival  of  your  gift  of 
books  by  the  *  Art  Union.'  Five  copies  of  that  admirable  collec- 
tion of  living  Essays,  by  Dr.  Noyes,  had  reached  us  two  months 
previous  by  the  *  William  Wirt,'  but  they  are  all  wanted.  The 
latter  &ve  copies,  with  a  volume  of  Dr.  Lamson's  Sermons, 
—  for  which  I  shall  write  him  my  thanks,  —  made  up  one  half 
the  bundle ;  of  which  the  other  half  contained  twenty  copies  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association  Quarterly,  for  October  and  Janu- 
ary last;  also  four  copies  of  *The  Homeward  Path;'  and  four 
of  *  Light  Dawning,'  the  gift  of  our  friend,  Mr.  Fearing ;  also 
six  other  books  for  our  Sunday-school  boys,  the  gift  of  Miss 
Charlotte  M.  Ebven,  of  Portsmouth,  accompanied  by  a  brief  let- 
ter, giving  us  a  peep  into  what  I  must  continue  to  call  Deacon 
Foster's  Sunday  School ;  that  model  spiritual  beehive,  which  still 
seems  to  flow  richly,  as  of  old,  with  milk  and  honey.  What 
would  we  not  give  if  they  would  only  hold  one  of  their  teachers' 
meetings  in  Calcutta,  and  bring  their  pastor,  their  ever-toiling  Dr. 
Peabody,  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  to  us  all  before  he  and 
his  flock  should  return  to  the  brighter  side  of  the  earth  !  Twelve 
copies  of  'Little  Songs,'  by  Mrs.  Follen,  very  prettily  bound, 
will  set  not  a  few  Bengalee  boys,  and,  I  hope,  one  or  two  Ben- 
galee girls,  a  singing  and  smiling,  as  they,  poor  things,  are  not 
wont  to  sing  and  smile.  By  the  way,  there  is  music  in  Hindoo 
souls,  and  I  find  that  in  all  the  Mission  schools  they  readily  learn 
to  make  music  in  the  Western  way.  Old  Coronation,  *  All 
hail  the  great  Immanuel's  name,'  is  to  be  sung  throughout 
Bengal  some  day,  and  I  trust  there  are  some  already  born  who 
shall  hear  it.  One  of  the  fierce  death-throes  of  Hindooism  is  just 
now  spreading  no  little  consternation  throughout  British  India. 
The  cry  is  that  the  English  government  are  taking  measures  to 
destroy  the  anti-Christian  and  anti-human  institution  of  Caste. 
A  gentleman  of  forty  years'  Indian  experience,  with  whom  I  now 
make  my  home,  Mr.  Samuel  Smith  (our  senior  elder),  informs  me 
that  while  there  are  at  present  in  India,  including  the  three  Presi- 
dencies, only  about  25,000  European  soldiers  Q  Queen's  '  and 
*  Company's '  troops),  England  has  trained  and  armed  for  war's 
bloody  work  from  150,000  to  200,000  natives  of  this  country.    All 


128  EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

these  are  under  regimental  drill  with  natives  for  their  under  officers, 
and  armed  to  the  teeth  with  English  guns,  bayonets,  sword^,  i^nd 
pistols.  Were  it  not  that  there  is  no  love  between  man  and.  man, 
or  at  least  nothing  whatever  of  Christian  brotherhood  and  Christian 
faith,  you  see  how  impossible  it  would  be  to  trust  this  immense  force, 
so  armed  and  taught  to  kill,  with  the  protection  of  all  the  ^great  in- 
terests — that  have  sometimes  been  oppressions  —  of  their  co^quei^ 
ors.  You  will  hardly  believe  that,  of  these  150,000  or  200,000  native 
troops,  about  one  third  are  Brahmins  of  the  priestly  caste^  though 
of  course  not  priests.  For  soldiers'  pay  India  holds  India  down, 
for  the  will  of  Britain  —  happily  a  will  well  bent — to  work  its 
supreme  pleasure.  Once  in  a  while,  however,  the  cry  that  stirred 
the  brave  old  Greeks  to  assert  themselves  against  their  conquerors, 
stirs  the  cowed  and  boyish  heart  of  the  Hindoo.  Once  in  a  while 
it  is  as  when  Rienzi  shouted,  '  Rouse  ye,  Romans !  Rouse  ye, 
slaves  !  '  or  as  when  Isaiah's  voice  proclaimed,  '  Your  land,' 
strangers  devour  it  in  your  presence  and  it  is  desolate^  as  ov^- 
thrown  by  strangers ! '  Such  a  call  to  arms  has  rung  through  all 
Northern  India  during  the  last  two  months.  The  ill-&ted  city  of 
Delhi  has  been  taken  by  the  natives,  and  the  few  Europeans  that 
they  could  lay  hands  on  —  men,  women,  and  children,  mis- 
sionaries and  army-officers,  with  their  wives  and  daughters — all, 
all  have  been  miserably  murdered.  Last  night's  mail  brought  us 
the  first  news  of  bloody  retribution.  Hindoos  are  being  blown 
from  the  mouths  of  British  cannon  by  the  '  bully  boys '  of  Eng- 
land, and  it  is  probable  that  of  the  fair  city  of  Delhi  —  once  the 
proud  imperial  city  of  the  Great  Mogul  —  not  one  stone  is  to  be 
left  upon  another.  A  single  shaft  of  stone  is  to  mark  the  place 
where  Delhi  stood.  Such  is  the  fierce  call  of  Englishmen  in  In- 
dia, and  *  The  Friend  of  India  '  (newspaper)  is  sounding  out  that 
call  to  the  echo.  The  panic  has  extended  to  Calcutta.  Almost 
every  citizen,  white-faced  and  Eurasian,  and  even  all  the  natives 
in  government  employ,  have  had  organization  meetings  and  ten- 
dered their  services  as  men  ready  to  fight  for  England.  Some  of 
our  Boston  merchants  have  pointed  me  to  the  loaded  revolver  by 
the  side  of  the  inkstand  at  office,  and  told  me  of  what,  in  my  locality, 
I  have  not  yet  heard,  — the  cry  of  special  patrols,  <  Buck  o'clock  at 


EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTEBS.  129 

night  and  all 's  well ! '  breaking  in  upon  every  half-hour's  rest. 
Many  have  laughed  at  the  panic  as  uncalled  for,  while  not  a  few 
still  keep  their  powder  dry.  Full  accounts  of  all  this  *  Sepoy 
mutiny,'  or  *  Sepoy  rebellion,'  have  doubtless  reached  you.  And 
I  have  only  spoken  of  it  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that,  when 
this  native  rising  is  wholly  subdued,  as  it  must  be  in  a  few  weeks, 
the  institution  of  caste  will  no  longer  be  treated  gingerly  and 
timidly, — or  with  that  gentleness  which  has  been  accorded  it 
hitherto.  Caste  will  soon  receive  its  death-stab,  —  and  the  sooner 
the  better !    God  hasten  the  day ! 

**  I  find  I  have  been  led  far  firom  the  -point  I  had  in  hand,  name- 
ly, the  *  Little  Songs '  of  Mrs.  Follen,  and  the  resounding  of  old 

*  Coronation '  from  Cape  Comorin  to  Cashmere.  That  it  has  got 
to  be  snng  here,  no  man  of  the  least  pretensions  to  that  wisdom 
which  is  the  gift  of  prophecy  can  doubt.  I  must  not  omit  to 
thank  yon  for  the  other  contents  of  my  last  bundle,  namely,  twelve 
copies  of  your  neat  republication  of  our  Second  Half-yearly  Re- 
port. We  are  much  pleased  with  it,  and  thank  you  for  what  you 
have  thus  done  for  our  cause,  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts.  The 
twelve  copies  of  the  Rev.  G.  E.  Ellis's  Sunday-School  Address  at 
Salem  are  also  welcome.  We  have  only  now  to  ask  for  ten  or  a 
dozen  sets  of  Channing's  Works,  for  which  there  would  be  an  al- 
most immediate  sale.  More  than  half  of  them  having  been  spoken 
for  at  Gye  rupees,  or,  if  we  could  afford  it,  four  rupees  (two 
dollars),  a  set.  Send  with  them,  if  you  please,  a  dozen  or  so  of  the 
Year-Book,  or  Unitarian  Almanac,  as  the  presence  of  a  copy  of 
it  in  each  family  of  our  little  congregation  does  a  good  deal  to- 
wards helping  us  to  feel  that  we  are  not  alone  on  the  earth.  The 
gentleman  in  Boston  who  lately  sent  me  fifty  copies  of  Horace 
Mann's  Antioch  Inaugural,  and  fifty  copies  of  Father  Pierce's 

*  Education  and  Crime '  Essay,  ought  to  know  that  they  have  been 
taken  up  with  great  avidity,  and  are  silently  at  work  helping  the 
progressive  party  in  the  native  community  about  us  to  know  how 
much  of  truth  or  error  there  may  be  in  their  favorite  motto,  *  Edu- 
cation is  Salvation.' 

'*  I  had  much  more  to  say,  but  must  crowd  it  into  a  few  lines. 
Takoor  Das  Roy  is  stanch  to  his  first  resolve,  and,  so  far  from 


180  EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

shrinking,  asks,  as  yoa  see  in  his  note  which  I  enclose,  how  he  is 
to  start  for  America  as  to  outfit,  &c.,  and  on  what  day.  Two  or 
three  others  who  long  to  go  with  him  have  aged  parents  who  de- 
pend on  them,  or  some  such  difficulty  that  is  hard  to  solve.  I  am 
studying  the  Bhagavat  Geeta,  that  beautiful  philosophical  poem, 
and  '  solemn  discussion  on  the  nature  of  the  Godhead  and  the 
destiny  of  man,'  —  the  grandest  exposition  of  the  pantheism  of 
the  Hindoos,  —  aided  by  an  English  translation  of  its  Sanscrit 
original,  and  guided  by  the  gentle  old  idolater.  Rajah  Radakant 
Deb.  Two  pamphlets  (Reports),  just  published  by  the  Managers 
of  the  Metropolitan  College  and  those  of  the  lonye  (lon-ni)  Train- 
ing-School,  have  been  sent  me,  in  which  Educational  Addresses  of 
mine,  I  am  glad  to  see,  are  printed  and  widely  circulated,.wholly 
at  the  expense  of  gentlemen  who  are  '  heathen '  by  their  own 
claiming,  —  i.  e.  Hindoos  who  are  ready  for  some  Christian  truth. 
I  thank  you  for  the  Diploma  —  shall  I  call  it  ?  —  that  proves  me  to 
be  a  life-member  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  I  need 
not  say  that  I  value  it  highly.  Our  loved  pupil,  Kadar  Nath  Sen, 
has  come  back  to  our  Sunday  School  after  long  illness.  €rod  be 
with  you  all. 

"  P.  S.  I  extract  the  following  from  *  The  Friend  of  India,' 
of  May  21,  1857,  a  weekly  newspaper,  printed  near  Calcutta,  and 
known  and  valued  the  world  over,  and  very  strongly  devoted  to 
English  interests. 

*' '  An  innumerable  multitude  of  persons,  many  of  them  able, 
and  most  of  them  honest,  have  written  in  praise  of  the  East  India 
Company's  revenue  system  in  Madras.'  (Let  us  look  at  the 
facts  as  expository  of  one  of  the  greatest  social  questions  of  India, 
the  question  of  popular  development  and  self-reliance.)  '  In  the 
last  Report  of  the  Madras  Government  the  inhabitants  are  set  down 
as  amounting  to  upwards  of  twenty-three  millions ;  three  fourths 
of  whom  are  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  At  the  usual  rate 
of  five  persons  to  a  family,  this  gives  say  three  and  a  quarter  mil- 
lions of  able-bodied  ryots ;  and  since  the  peasant's  wife  works  as 
hard  as  her  husband,  and  the  children  are  put  to  labor  as  soon  as 
they  can  crawl,  we  shall  be  fiu:  within  the  mark  when  we  assmne 


EXTBAOTS  FBOM  LETTERS.  181 

that  the  work  of  two  laborers  is  done  by  each  fiimily  of  fire  per- 
sons. We  have,  then,  six  and  a  half  millions  of  workers  diligently 
toiling  on  the  land,  and  more  than  ten  millions  depending  for  fbod 
upon  their  exertions. 

"  *  Now,  what  do  they  earn,  from  January  to  December?  Never 
was  problem  more  easily  solved,  and  never  before  did  the  result  of 
a  few  simple  figures  so  put  to  shame  the  working  of  a  Christian 
gofvemment.  The  official  estimate  of  Land  Bevenue  for  1856  -  7 
gave  a  total  under  three  and  a  half  millions  sterling;  and  we 
have  to  find  out  what  proportion  of  the  gross  produce  of  the  land 
is  represented  in  that  sum. 

<<  <  Colonel  Baird  Smith  says  that  in  Tanjore,  the  most  favored 
district  ir  the  Presidency,  the  government  share  is  two  fifths  of  the 
gross  produce.  We  doubt  if  in  any  part  of  Madras  the  amount 
actually  taken  by  servants  of  the  state  is  less  than  one  half;  and. 
we  know  firom  personal  investigation  that,  over  the  greater  portion 
of  the  country,  the  tax  swallows  up  two  thirds.  But  let  us  take 
Tanjore  as  the  standard  by  which  the  impost  is  assessed,  and  the 
entire  value  of  the  cultivation  is  shown  to  be  eight  and  three  quar- 
ter millions  (of  pounds).  If  no  portion  of  the  above  sum  were 
taken  by  government ;  if  the  crops  grew  spontaneously,  and  the 
reaping  were  done  by  fairies ;  the  sum  to  be  divided  amongst  the 
people  would  not  amount,  for  each  household,  to  two  rupees  eight 
annas  ($1.26). 

<' '  But  inasmuch  as  the  government,  in  their  mildest  mood,  take 
two  fifths,  and  the  cost  of  cultivation,  excluding  labor,  cannot  be 
set  down  at  less  than  one  fifth,  we  have  for  distribution  amongst 
the  people  as  many  pounds  sterling  as  there  are  heads  of  families, 
or  half  that  sum  as  the  annual  wages  of  each  laborer !  Did  the 
bitterest  denunciation  of  the  Company's  rule  ever  reach  the  accus- 
ing height  of  those  simple  facts  ?  Think  of  it,  conquering  coun- 
trymen of  ours  I  Five  pence  a  week  for  the  joint  labor  of  man, 
wife,  and  children !  Though  that  would  be  two  shillings  and  a 
penny  in  the  currency  of  London  and  Liverpool,  where  money  is 
said  to  be  worth  only  a  fifth  of  what  it  will  buy  in  India,  —  in  the 
shape,  however,  of  food  and  shelter  only. 

"  *  In  view  of  such  facts,  our  friends  at  home  may  form  a  lively 


182  EXTBACTS   FBOM  LETTERS. 

idea  of  what  the  seventeen  millions  have  to  spare  for  food,  edaca- 
tion,  pastime,  and  religious  observances,  when  they  can  afford  to 
lay  out  on  their  wardrobes  just  sixpence  a  year  I 

*' '  Of  upwards  of  ninety  millions  of  culturable  acres  in  Madras, 
not  above  twenty  per  cent  of  the  whole  area  is  cultivated.     Indigo, 
sugar,  cotton,  oil-seeds,  and  coSee  grow  in  perfection.    Excellent 
raw  sugar  can  be  laid  down  at  the  seaboard  at  nine  rupees  six  an- 
nas per  hundred  ($4.75).    Cotton  gives  a  capital  letum  when 
the  grower  obtains  two  pence  a  pound  for  it.     As  much  as  forty 
thousand  maunds  (maund  =»  82  pounds)  of  indigo  have  been 
shipped  in  a  single  year ;  and  to  the  production  of  oils  there 
is  literally  no  limit.    And  for  every  ounce  of  produce  there  are 
eager  buyers ;  and  if  the  yield  were  increased  twenty  times  over, 
no  portion  of  it  would  be  left  on  hand.    Yet  this  is  the  land  of 
which  the  richest  tracts  lie  waste.     Emigratioa  absorbs  more  than 
the  annual  increase  of  the  population.     The  labor  that  might  find 
such  profitable  returns  at  home  is  drafted  off  to  a  dozen  leady  mar- 
kets.   The  man  who  should  raise  sugar  on  his  own  lot  of  ground 
is  too  glad  to  hire  himself  out  to  the  planter  in  Mauritins. 
Wealth,  education,  Christianity,  lie  at  his  feet ;  yet  he  is  obliged 
to  expatriate  himself  to  procure  the  means  of  existence.    The 
Madras  system  is  fatal  alike  to  all  the  producing  classes,  —  to  Eu- 
ropean enterprise  as  well  as  native  development' 

''  These  facts  will,  in  part,  account  for  the  slowness  of  misaionaiy 
progress,  —  especially  out  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities.  What 
avails  it  to  '  tell  the  story  of  the  cross '  to  brutish  human  cstde, 
naked  and  starving  ? 

<*  You  will  not  wonder  now,  that  torture,  most  horrible  and  ob- 
scene, is  used  for  exaction  of  revenue  by  the  (native)  colleetorB  of 
it  for  the  English  government.  So  that  Parliament  stands  aghast 
at  it. 

"  A  Bengal  indigo-planter,  a  man  of  benevolence  and  integrity, 
assures  me  that,  like  the  slave-whip,  the  ryot-whip  is  found  indis- 
pensable to  the  cultivation  of  the  great  staples,  indigo,  &c.,  in 
the  north  as  in  the  south." 


BXTBAOTS  FBOM  LETTERS.  188 

Mr.  Dall's  last  letter  is  dated  June  17,  1857.  That  was 
the  time  when,  as  was  supposed  here,  nearly  all  India  was 
resounding  with  the  din  of  revolt  and  war.  Our  corre- 
spondent^ in  this  scholarly  and  quiet  letter,  gives  an  account 
of  his  studies  in  the  languages  of  the  East 

'<  Though  it  is  two  years  to-day  since  I  first  saw  land  in  Asia, 
I  am  hardly  yet  beginning  to  see  or  to  realize  the  greatDesa  of  the 
work  that  Grod  has  here  given  us  to  do.    Were  it  not  that  the 
elements  of  human  life  and  speculation  are  the  same  ererywhere, 
and  run  pretty  much  the  same  round,  in  the  Ghreek  mind  as  in  the 
Scandinavian,  and  in  the  jScandinavian  as  in  the  Asiatic,  one 
would  despair  of  ever  comprehending  his  task,  as  a  deliverer  of 
men,  in  this  part  of  the  world :  '  to  turn  them  firom  darkness  to 
light,  and  firom  ^e  power  of  Satan  to  the  Living  God.'    You 
must  understand  the  language  of  a  stranger  before  you  can  teach 
him  your  own,  and  know  the  mental  condition  of  men  before  you 
can  move  them  towards  a  higher  wisdom.    Though  I  would  will- 
ingly devote  to  the  study  of  the  Oriental  languages  five  or  six 
hours,  instead  of  one  hour,  a  day,  the  press  of  correspondence,  and 
of  reading  and  printing,  and  of  other  engagements,  makes  it 
impossible.     In  my  (fragmentary)  reading  of  Hindoo  scripture,  I 
am  as  yet  dependent  upon  English  translations  made  by  such  men 
as  Sir  William  Jones,  H.  T.  Colebrooke,  Charles  Wilkins,  and 
Rammohun  Roy.    I  oflen  long  to  send  you  and  our  friends  brief 
selections  and  extracts,  by  which  you  may  judge,  at  first  hand,  of 
the  sources  of  mischief  which  have  misled  and  ruined  this  people. 
But  I  fall  every  now  and  then  upon  some  statement  that  casts  a 
new  light  over  all  my  previous  impressions,  so  that  I  wholly  re- 
frain, for  the  present,  from  the  fear  that  what  I  might  give  you 
would  afterwards  prove  to  be  quite  one-sided,  and  so  untrue. 
You  are  aware  that  the  records  of  Hindoo  philosophy — the  pur- 
est portions  of  which  occasionally  remind  one  of  the  Book  of  Job 
—  have  been  handed  down,  unaltered,  from  an  age  long  before  that 
of  Alexander  the  Great.     *  Since  the  time  of  Sir  William  Jones, 
the  recesses  of  this  venerable  literature  have  been  more  and  more 
thrown  open,  till  at  length  we  have  acquired  a  complete  general 
VOL.  V.  NO.  I.  12 


134  EXTRAOTS  FBOM  LETTEBS. 

• 

knowledge  of  its  character  and  value.'  '  Still,  very  much  remains 
to  be  doDe ;  and  the  field  of  investigation  is  so  vast,  that  it  cannot 
be  accurately  surveyed  and  delineated,  except  by  the  combined 
exertions  of  many  scholars  and  philosophers.'  *■  For  three  thou- 
sand years  the  mind  of  India,  prolific  as  her  own  all-productire 
soil,  has  been  pouring  itself  forth  in  the  effusions  of  devotion,  or 
in  speculations  upon  the  Divine  nature  and  the  origin  of  the  uni- 
verse.' '  Metaphysics,  physics,  logic,  rhetoric,  grammar,  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  poetry,  and  mythology  have  employed  the 
pens  of  almost  countless  writers,  until  Sanscrit  literature  has  as- 
sumed a  formidable  shape  and  magnitude.'  He  must  be  a  bold 
man,  and  as  foolish  as  daring,  who  should  cry  out  against  what  he 
does  not  understand,  and  condemn  it  all  as  folly.  We  know  that 
St.  Paul  pursued  quite  a  different  course.  He  delighted  to  draw 
out  whatever  of  truth  God  had  given  to  heathen  poets,  and  make 
it  a  stepping-stone  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  It  is  largely  on 
account  of  their  refusing  to  lay  such  stones  of  help  for  the  nar- 
rowly-keen and  ^  philosophic '  Hindoos,  that  the  Trinitarian  mis- 
sionaries have  induced  so  few,  so  very  few,  thinking  and  influential 
men  to  '  pass  over  Jordan '  into  the  honey-gardens  and  wbea^ 
fields  of  the  Grospel. 

<'  I  wish  I  could  report  a  progress  more  rapid  and  satisfactory 
in  my  mastery  of  the  contents  of  the  Mahabharat,  the  Remayuna, 
and  the  Yaidant ;  i.  e.  the  two  greater  religious  poems  of  the 
Hindoos,  and  the  third  the  distillation  of  the  Veds,  the  Hibdoo 
< Deuteronomy.'  Give  me  time,  and  I  will  master  them;  for  I 
have  begun  the  study  of  Sanscrit,  and  doubt  if  I  shall  find  it  very 
difficult,  —  especially  as  I  am  aided  by  my  tolerably  fluent  reading 
of  Bengalee,  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  my  old  twelve  years'  drill  in 
Greek  and  Latin,  five  at  the  Boston  Latin  School  and  seven  at 
Cambridge. 

*'  If  I  am  to  be  permitted  to  labor  for  successive  years  in  India, 
I  must  be  a  constant  and  tireless  reader  and  student  of  Asiatic  life 
and  thought,  the  difficulty  of  mastering  which  may  partly  be  CQDr 
ceived  by  imagining  a  Chinese  or  a  Persian  student  to  be  taken 
up  and  dropped  somewhere  in  mid-Europe,  with  the  task  bef<Nre 
him  of  learning  German,  English,  French,  Russian,  Greek,  Itai- 


EZTBAOTS  FBOM  LETTEBS.  135 

ian,  Spanish,  &c.,  and  of  learning  the  Greek j  English,  Grerraan, 
Russian,  and  Turkish  alphabetical  ciphers,  before  he  is  able  to  take 
a  single  forward  step  towards  reading  or  conversing  in  those 
tongues.  Again,  the  Asiatic  alphabets  are  far  more  elaborate ; 
and  while  we  are  content  with  twenty-six  letters,  the  Tamil 
(as  a  specimen)  has  one  hundred  and  sixty-four.  No  wonder 
that  Indian  children  in  the  Patshallas  (Tillage  schools)  spend 
years  on  the  alphabet,  and  carry  their  school  education  but  little 
further. 

*'  I  observe  in  one  of  the  Christian  Registers,  sent  me  by  my 
father,  that  I  am  by  some  beliered  to  be  pretty  hard  at  work.  I 
am  so ;  and  have  tried  to  be  so,  from  the  hour  when  he  taught  me 
to  lisp  the  motto,  *  Constant  employment  is  constant  enjoyment  J* 
Living  at  the  Mission-Room,  and  with  no  distracting  cares  what- 
ever, I  have  nothing  but  my  Gospel  work  to  do  ;  and,  while  mo- 
tives fox  exertion  surround  me,  in  the  prQvidence  of  God  such  as 
are  granted  to  but  few,  I  should  be  wickedly  ungrateful,  and  one 
of  the  saddest  instead  of  being  one  of  the  happiest  of  men,  did  I 
not  fulfil  the  command,  *  Think  on  these  things,  give  thyself 
wholly  to  them.' 

*'  I  am  very  anxious  to  guard  you  and  our  friends  against  being 

deceived  by  appearances,  and  misled  by  any  words  of  mine,  or  of 

others  whose  letters  I  am  sending  you  from  mail  to  mail.    You 

are  in  no  danger  of  making  too  large  a  discount  for  the  —  not  de- 

edtfulness,  I  think,  but  the  —  hyper-expressiveness  of  Asiatic 

feeling  ;  and  of  that  enthusiasm  which  kindles  up  bravely,  but 

soon  dulls  down  again  and  dies,  unless  watched  and  fed  by  a 

Western  will,  —  a  thing  which  is  not  yet  developed  in  man  in 

Aria.    You  know  that  from  the  first  my  plan  has  been  to  have  no 

plan  except  that  of  Providential  suggestion.     This  has  resulted 

in  the  opening  up  of  mines  of  spiritual  opportunity,  more  than 

can  be  wrought  by  the  workmen  now  in  the  Calcutta  Unitarian 

field.    As  one  after  another  of  these  has  poured  its  treasures  in 

our  path,  I  have  joyfully  announced  the  fact,  and  petitioned  for 

help  to  gather  them  for  our  Master.    I  should  imagine,  from  one 

tttiele  that  I  read  not  long  since  in  the  Registef ,  that  some  of  our 

tiends  BU^poee  all  these  mines  to  be  '  in  full  blast,'  which  cer- 


136  EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTERS. 

tainly  is  not  the  case ;  because  the  workiDg  of  them  all,  with  our 
present  missionary  staff,  is  morally  impossible.  I  trust  our  Half- 
yearly  Reports  will  always,  tell  you  precisely  what  we  are  doing. 
What  more  an  Infinite  and  Almighty  Love  is  doing  by  such  feeble 
agencies  as  ours,  we  must  of  course  leave  you  to  judge.  You  are 
quite  as  able  as  we  are,  to  say  '  whereunto  this  thing  may  grow.' 

*^  The  correspondence  of  the  mission  has  not  diminished,  but  is 
nether  extending  itself  more  widely.  I  shall,  as  usual,  enclose 
you  one  or  more  specimens  of  it,  received  to-day,  or  else  within  a 
day  or  two  past  Our  mission  is,  without  doubt,  gaining  upon  the 
affections  of  many  natives  of  India,  who  either  are  leaders  of 
Hindoo  society  or  are  likely  to  be  so  in  a  few  years.  Our,  or  I 
may  say,  your  books  are  going  everywhere,  and  seem  to  be  much 
in  demand  and  to  be  eagerly  read  and  purchased.  An  utterly  self- 
ish application  of  wealth  has  been  the  Asiatic  rule  so  long,  that  a 
small  gift  of  money  from  a  Hindoo,  where  he  is  not  sure  of  gaiaiog 
any  praise  by  it,  deserves  to  be  estimated  very  highly.  Did  the  rich 
nabobs  of  India,  or  her  rajahs,  glory  in  doing  good,  or  if  they 
knew  the  joy  of  disinterested  benevolence,  idolatry,  with  its  abom- 
inations, would  speedily  hide  its  head,  — for  it  can  only  exist  in 
the  midst  of  the  grossest  popular  ignorance ;  then  the  supersti- 
tions of  Brahminism  would  be  at  an  end,  and  our  mission,  having 
set  up  Christ ^s  kingdom,  would  be  at  an  end.  So  do  not  let  aay  of 
our  friends  anticipate  much  from  native  contributions  of  money 
for  some  years  yet,  unless  it  be  in  the  way  of  purchasing  boc^ 
There  are  unequivocal  signs  of  the  opening  of  a  wide  demand  for 
Unitarian  books  in  the  English  tongue.  Ere  many  years,  we  shall 
sell  as  many  copies  of  Channing's  works  in  India  as  in  any  por- 
tion of  the  world  out  of  New  England ;  i.  e.  if  we  vigorously 
prosecute  the  work  that  God  has  given  us  to  do. 

'^  I  have  only  left  n^yself  room  to  say,  in  closing,  that  another 
good  man,  a  native  Christian  preacher,  Roop  Chand,  late  assist- 
ant minister  of  the  Howrah  Mission,  has  just  taken  up  his  old 
connections  and  come  over  to  us.  I  want  to  build  a  mat  chapel  for 
him.  It  would  cost  about  fifty  dollars ;  no  more.  He  will  proba- 
bly preach  in  our  Mission- Room  soon,  and  I  hope  he  will  write  as 
good  sermons  as  Chundy  Churn  Singha,  who  has  twice  preached 


EXTBACTS  FROM  LETTERS.  137 

for  me,  to  the  great  satis^tion  of  his  hearers.  Our  work,  in  all 
directions,  seems  in  healthful  progress.  I  am  trying  the  experi- 
ment of  organizing  Publishing  Auxiliaries  to  our  parent  Society 
on  the  '  penny-a-month  '  plan^  and  I  think  two  or  three  of  them 
will  come  to  something.  It  is  a  good  profession  of  faith,  if  no 
more." 

Since  we  had  prepared  the  ahove  for  the  press,  we  have 
received  another  letter  from  Mr.  Dall,  dated  Calcutta,  July 
4,  1857 ;  and  as  it  gives  the  most  recent  information  of  the 
direful  events  now  taking  place  in  India,  we  cannot  with- 
hold it  from  our  readers. 

*'  One  single  subject  now  engrosses  the  minds  of  all  the  popula- 
tion of  India,  both  native  and  foreign  ;  and  that  is  the  wide-spread 
mutiny  of  the  troops  (Sepoys,  Hindoos,  and  Mahometans),  relied 
on  by  the  British  government  to  hold  this  country  in  subjection. 
The  wily  and  more  able  Mahometan  knows  too  well  how  to  make 
the  childish  Hindoo  his  tool  and  cat*s-.paw.  The  religion  of  the 
Mahometan,  as  you  are  aware,  is  a  religion  of  the  sword.  In  our 
part  of  the  world  it  is  hard  to  realize  what  that  means,  but  here  in 
Asia  we  are  compelled  to  understand  it.  The  religious  cry  of 
77ie  sword  of  Mahomet  and  the  Koran !  Slay  and  spare  no  infidel, 
man,  woman,  or  child!  is  now  ringing  frightfully  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  British  India.  It  broke  out  first  within  ten* 
miles  of  Calcutta,  at  Barrackpore.  Presently  the  awful  echo  re- 
sounded in  Delhi  (the  head  city  of  the  old  Mahometan  kings), 
where  they  murdered  ail  they  could  find,  and  then  it  was  heard  in 
the  lately  annexed  kingdom  of  Oude,  then  in  the  Punjaub,  and 
now  Bengal,.  Madras,  Bombay,  in  all  their  principal  cities,  are 
either  dripping  with  the  white  man's  blood,  or 

/Whispering  with  white  lips. 
The  foe,  —  they  come !  they  come ! ' 

"Where  it  will  end,  no  man  knows,  nor  can  any  say  that  we  have 
yet  seen  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Nearly  every  citizen  of  Cal- 
cutta is  out  on  drill  from  morning  to  morning,  and  on  patrol  night 

12* 


138  BXTBACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

after  night  The  male  members  of  my  litUe  flook  are  all  soldiers, 
and  the  common  topic —  even  as  we  tarry  to  talk  together  afler 
service  on  Sundays — is  of  what  is  best  to  be  done  in  case  of 
attack  by  an  armed  Mahometan  mob.  You  need  have  no  fear 
of  our  being  murdered  in  Calcutta.  All  the  Englii^  troops  that 
were  destined  to  China  are  now  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  or  on  their 
way  up  the  Hooghly ;  and  Lord  Elgin,  whom  I  not  very  long 
since  saw  and  conversed  with  in  the  capital  city  of  Canada  West, 
I  may  now  meet  any  day  in  the  streets  of  Calcutta. 

'^  All  those  who  have  friends  in  the  interior  cities  of  Hindostan 
will  now  read  every  newspaper  that  reaches  them  from  this  quar- 
ter of  the  world  with  deep  anxiety.  The  telegraphic  wires,  of 
course,  are  broken  down,  and  all  the  usual  methods  of  obtaining 
information  are  cut  off.  200,000  native  troops,  fully  armed  and 
equipped  by  the  English  government,  and  put  in  charge  of  mag- 
azines of  ammunition  and  treasuries  of  money  throughout  the 
entire  country,  are  now,  more  than  one  fourth  of  them,  in  open 
rebellion,  led  on  by  the  disciples  of  Allah  and  Mahomet  to  plun- 
der and  destroy.  Where  they  happen  to  have  been  Tictorious, 
they  have  sacked  not  only  the  English  treasure-vaults,  bapks,  &e., 
but  ^  tooted '  also  the  harmless  native  population.  After  destroy- 
ing the  villages  and  tovms  of  their  own  countrymen,  they  have 
then  fallen  to  hacking  one  another  to  pieces.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  outbreak,  I  hoped  that  something  like  patriotism  was  the 
cause  of  their  rising,  but  I  have  learned  to  believe  that  only  Okris- 
tian  nations  are  capable  of  patriotism.  Missionary  schools  have 
closed  their  doors  everywhere  with  dismay,  nor  have  all  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  escape  massacre  and  death.  Missionary  opera- 
tions, except  in  Calcutta,  have  for  the  most  part  come  to  a  stand- 
still ;  and  even  in  this  city  several  schools  have  been  closed  under 
the  effect  of  the  general  panic.  As  the  calm  surely  follows  the 
storm,  the  subsidence  of  these  commotions  will  be  followed  by  a 
rich  missionary  harvest. 

"  My  own  work,  except  as  we  are  connected  with  the  interior 
of  the  country,  goes  on  about  as  usual.  No  day  passes  without 
bringing  me  from  two  or  three  to  seven  or  eight  inquirers  after 
religious  truth.     Yesterday,  Sunday,  I  had  not  less  than  eight 


EXTRACTS  FBOM  LSTTBBS.  189 

hours  of  direct  preaching,  instractioo,  and  eonyerBalion,  with,  as 
usual,  two  or  three  new  men  among  ray  hearers.  I  pay  for  it  the 
penalty  of  a  headache  to-day,  which,  with  me,  is  a  very  uncom- 
mon thing.  I  find  that  I  am  writing  you  at  greater  length  than  I 
intended ;  for  I  only  took  up  a  pen  to  record  a  single  fact,  illustra* 
tive  of  the  present  bad  state  of  our  friends  in  the  interior  of  this 
country.  —  I  have  now  lying  on  my  table  a  package  of  books 
directed  to  Mr.  George  Edward  Ives,  of  Futtyghur.  Twice  I 
have  sent  it  to  the  Book  Post,  and  twice  they  have  sent  it  back  to 
me  (at  a  fortnight's  interval),  saying,  '  We  have  no  communica- 
tion with  Futtyghur.'  You  may  remember  Mr.  Ives  as  an  old 
English  resident  of  India,  who  took  my  last  copy  of  Channing's 
Works,  with  the  express  intention  of  using  them  for  the  instruct 
tion  of  the  natives  of  Futtyghuir,  among  whom  he  has  long  re- 
sided. Now  listen  to  his  fate,  for  there  is  little  room  to  doubt 
that  he  was  one  of  the  party  spoken  of  in  the  following  para- 
graph, which  I  take  from  this  morning's  *  Englishman '  :  *  A 
correspondent  writes,  dating  from  Allahabad,  —  where  he  says 
the  destruction  of  life  has  been  severe,  —  the  deaths  by  cholera, 
of  those  who  crowded  into  the  fort  for  refuge,  has  been  some- 
thing awful ;  and  the  ruin  of  railway  works,  and  of  all  property 
that  could  be  burned  and  razed,  is  complete ;  and  where  the  church 
is  fast  filling  up  with  European  soldiery  who  are  arriving  from 
Calcutta  by  river  steamers,  for  their  relief  and  for  the  punishment 
of  their  enemies.  This  correspondent  says:  'Did  you  get  the 
report  of  the  Futtyghur  fugitives?  They  were  treated  with  un- 
paralleled atrocity.  A  hundred  and  thirty-two  Europeans, 
men,  women,  and  children,  in  fifty  boats,  left  Futtyghur  for 
this  city.  The  party  included  all  the  non-military  residents  of  the 
place.  On  their  arrival  at  Bhitoor,  the  Nana  Sahib  fired  on  them 
with  the  artillery  which  the  government  had  allowed  him  to  keep. 
One  round-shot  struck  poor  Mrs.  B.  ajid  killed  her  on  the  spot. 
The  boats  were  then  boarded,  and  the  inmates  landed,  and  all  were 
dragged  to  the  parade-ground  at  Cawnpore.  There  they  were 
first  fired  at  with  matchlocks,  and  then  literally  hacked  to  pieces 
with  tulwars  (scymitars).  Report  says  that  not  one  escaped.' 
I  shall  be  overjoyed  to  hear  that  our  co-laborer,  Mr.  Ives,  has  es- 


\ 


140  EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTEBS. 

caped  with  his  life,  but  it  is  hardly  possible.  A  terrible  retribution 
awaits  the  poor,  misguided  wretches  who  are  committing  these 
murders,  —  a  majority  of  whom  are  Hindoos,  and,  I  believe,  Brah- 
mins ;  who  perhaps  are  made  to  think  that  tbey  are  fighting  for 
the  institutions  of  their  fathers ;  and  who,  mixing  the  fiercest  pas- 
sions with  that  vague  shadow  of  truth,  strike  for  their  idols 
*  even  as  they  are  led.'" 

"P.  S.  July  4th,  1857.  —  I  have  barely  time  to  add  a  few 
words  by  the  outgoing  mail.  On  Wednesday  last  I  went  to  Se- 
rampore.  It  was  the  great  festival  of  Juggernauth  ;  or  rather  the 
last  of  the  nine  days  of  that  festival  of  '  the  Lord  of  the  World.' 
The  celebration  of  it  is  conducted  with  more  splendor  and  with 
greater  crowds  at  Serampore  than  at  any  other  point  in  India,  ex- 
cept Guttack,  on  the  coast,  half-way  between  this  and  Madias ; 
where  many  pilgrims,  some  say  hundreds,  perish  every  year  from 
the  insufficiency  of  food,  &c.  provided  for  their  brief  stay  in  that 
region.  I  could  not  forego  the  opportunity,  to  be  had  by  a  brief 
journey  of  twenty  miles,  of  see'ing  the  multitudes  crowding  about 
the  car  of  so  renowned  an  idol.  The  rain  fell  steadily  all  the 
morning,  but  the  half-naked  thousands  of  men  and  women  (about 
one  third  were  women)  seemed  rather  to  enjoy  the  bath.  Before 
reaching  the  car,  or  rather  the  cars,  for  there  were  two,  the  whole 
scene  reminded  one  more  of  Don ny brook  Fair  than  of  any  relig- 
ious occasion.  The  streets  were  lined  with  booths,  in  which 
every  sort  of  native  manufacture  was  exposed  for  sale ;  clothing 
of  every  kind,  cutlery,  cooking  utensils,  baskets,  toys,  &c.,  &c.; 
and  among  the  latter  abounded  the  three  rude  statuettes  or  idols  of 
painted  clay,  previously  burned,  representing  the  three  chief  ta- 
koors  or  robed  idols  that  were  to  grace  the  upper  part  of  the  *  Rutt ' 
or  car  at  the  proper  hour.  These  three  were  the  hideous,  flat- 
faced  monstrosity  of  Juggernauth  himself,  which  is  placed  on  the 
right  of  the  upper  terrace  of  the  car ;  its  yellow-skinned  fac-simile, 
entitled  '  Bolaram,'  the  brother  of  Juggernauth,  which  is  placed 
on  the  left ;  and  a  smaller  yellow  beauty  named  *  Shebadra,'  the 
sister  of  Juggernauth,  which  holds  the  middle  place.  The  idea 
seems  to  be  that,  on  the  first  day  of  the  feast,  Juggernauth  goes  a 
wooing,  leaving  his  wife  at  home.     At  this  time  the  car  is  dragged 


)^^ 


£XTBAOT»  FBOM   LETTEBS.  141 

from  the  door  of  the  proper  '  Mondeer '  or  temple,  the  common 
home  of  the  Deity,  to  another  temple  at  no  great  distance  from 
it,  —  possibly  half  a  mile.  Then,  after  some  period  of  unlawful 
pleasure,  Juggemauth's  wife  goes  forth  to  seek  her  lord,  carrying 
mustard- seed  to  hum  as  a  filter,  the  smoke  of  which  is  a  certain 
charm  and  unfailing  spell  in  the  recapturing  of  his  affections.  The 
priests  go  through  with  all  this  process  of  magic  and  bewitchment ; 
and  the  people  watch  for  the  result  as  do  the  Roman  Catholic 
multitudes  for  the  weeping  of  the  statue  of  the  Virgin,  or  for  the 
liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  St.  Januarius.  At  times  the  Brah- 
mins close  the  doors  of  the  temple,  and  give  out  that  the  god  is 
eating,  &c. ,  and  the  wretched  worshippers  would  take  the  life  of 
him  who  should  attempt  to  open  the  doors  and  show  them  just 
what  was  going  on  within.  Songs  celebrating  the  libidinous  joys 
of  the  gods,  some  of  which  were  partly  interpreted  to  me  on  the 
spot,  were  vociferously  sung  by  choirs  of  men,  playing  on  viols, 
cithars,  and  flutes j  at  intervals  along  the  crowded  highways.  I 
could  tell  yon  mjich  more  of  this,  but  I  forbear.  Truly  one  must 
stand  in  the  midst  of  such  a  scene,  to  believe  that  anything  called 
'  religious '  could  sink  so  low.  <  Pollutions  of  idols '  they  are  in- 
*  deed.  God  hasten  the  day  of  their  downfall,  and  the  incoming 
to  these  poor  souls ! 

"  The  car  itself,  which  did  not  move  till  about  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  I  minutely  examined  with  painful  interest.  It 
^as  about  eighteen  feet  square  and  twenty  high,  with  four  bris- 
tling towers  on  what  I  may  call  its  first  terrace,  and  four,  nearer 
together,  on  its  second  story,  and  one  overtopping  all,  in  the  centre. 
It  was  all  alive  with  flags,  long-streaming  and  double-tongued. 
Nearly  the  whole  of  that  part  which  touched  the  ground  was  made 
of  wheels  five  or  six  fe|t  in  diameter,  and  of  solid  wood.  Of  these 
wheels  I  counted  about  twenty-five,  and  there  was  just  room 
enough  between  them  for  the  heavy  timbers  in  which  all  their 
(iron)  axles  were  set.  It  might  well  take  a  thousand  men  to  drag 
such  a  clumsy  structure  along  a  common  country  road.  No  cattle 
^^  yoked  to  it.  The  men  take  the  inner  cables  and  the  women 
^H  at  the  outer  ones.  The  corner  posts  of  the  car  are  elaborately 
carved  with  inter-wreathed  bodies  of  men  and  women  representing 


142        MEETINGS   OF  THE  EXECUTITE   COHMITTEB. 

the  exploits,  amours,  &c.  of  the  gods;  and  the  painted  sides  of  the 
car  are  intended  to  '  speak  to  eyes '  after  the  manner  of  the  stained 
glass  windows  of  old  cathedrals.  Would  that  they  told  as  pure  a 
story  of  martyrdom  and  genuine  self-devotion  to  God  and  to  man^s 
redemption !  It  would  take  pages  to  detail  to  you  the  interpreta- 
tion of  these  hlack  and  green  and  yellow-faced  mythologic  figures ; 
and  the  story  would  disgust  all  decent  jeaders.  You  will  find  it 
all  in  *  Ward  on  the  Hindoos.' — I  find  my  time  is  up.  God 
help  us  to  work  hravely  for  India !  " 


MEETINGS  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

May  29,  1857.  —  Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Fairbanks, 
Rogers,  Bellows,  Palfrey,  AJger,  Fearing,  ^nd  the  Secre- 
tary. 

A  letter  was  read  from  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale^  dedining 
the  appointment  as  a  member  of  this  Board.  It  was  voted 
to  proceed  to  fill  the  vacancy ;  and  E.  P.  Whipple,  Esq. 
was  unanimously  eleded. 

Mr.  Alger  made  a  report  in  regard  to  his  visit  to  the 
Western  Conference  of  Churches,  and  laid  before  the  Board 
some  gratifying  statistics,  showing  the  progress  of  Liberal 
Christianity  at  the  West. 

The  following  Standing  Committees  were  appointed,  the 
Secretary  being  ex  officio  member  of  each :  — 

On  Missions,  Messrs,  Lothrop,  Fearing,  Palfrey,  and 
Whipple. 

On  Publications.  Messrs.  Hall,  Hedge,  Alger,  Bellows, 
Hosmer,  and  Eliot. 

On  General  Business,  Messrs.  Fairbanks,  Clark,  and 
Rogers. 


MEETINGS   OF  THB  EXECUTIVE  OOMMITTEE.         143 

r<f  I  On  the  Heme  Mission.    Messrs.  Fearing,  Bellows,  Lo- 

se^ I         throp,  and  Rogers. 

A  letter  was  read  inviting  the  attendance  of  delegates, 
appointed  by  ibis  Board,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
friends  of  Antioch  College,  in  Yellow  Springs,  June  30th. 
It  was  voted  that  Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  and  Hon.  Albert  Fear- 
ing be  requested  to  represent  this  Board  on  that  occasion. 

The  subject  of  making  an  appeal  to  our  churches  in  be- 
half of  our  brethren  in  Transylvania  was  referred  to  the 
Committee  on  Missions,  with  full  power. 


Jtdy  13,  1857.  —  At  the  usual  monthly  meeting  of  the 
Executive  Committee  there  were  present  Messrs.  Lothrop, 
Fairbanks,  Hale,  Rogers,  Whipple,  Fearing,  Hedge,  Alger, 
and  the  Secretary. 

A  copy  of  a  memorandum  of  agreement  for  the  sale  of 
books  between  Rev.  Dr.  Beard  of  Manchester,  England,  on 
the  one  part,  and  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American 
Unitarian  Association,  on  the  other  part,  was  presented  to 
the  Board,  and  approved;  and  the  Secretary  was  author- 
ized to  sign  the  same. 

Letters  from  Rev.  E.  Nute  and  E.  B.  Whitman,  Esq.,  on 

^^e  subiect  of  a  transfer  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Law- 

'^^^  ^  J     rence,  Kansas,  to  the  Unitarian  Society  in  that  city,  were 

read,  and  the  subject  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on 

.  ijl     ^eral  Business,  with  full  power. 

^^'     I        Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  appeared  before  the  Committee,  and 

gave  an  interesting  and  instructive  report  of  his  recent  visit, 

^  a  delegate  of  this  Association,  to  Antioch  College.     It 

^as  voted  that  the  thanks  of  the  Association  be  presented  to 

^'  Gannett  for  the  valuable  service  he  has  rendered.     Dr. 

^^ett  has  added  to  the  favor  thus  conferred,  by  writing 

<^ttt  the  material  facts  of  his  report,  in  a  letter  which  will  be 

found  in  another  place  in  this  Journal. 


Cli 


le.  K 


,{ ^A 


or. 


QW^ 


144  NOTICES   OP  BOOKS. 

It  was  voted  that  the  District  Agents  of  last  year  be  re- 
appointed for  this  jear,  substituting  the  names  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Tebbets  of  Medford  in  place  of  Rev.  Mr.  Staples  of  Lex- 
ington, and  Rev.  A.  F.  Putnam  of  Roxburj  in  place  of 
Rev.  N.  Hall  of  Dorchester. 

Augu^  10,  1857.  —  Present,  'Messrs.  Hall,  Faiibanks, 
Clark,  Alger,  Fearing,  and  the  Secretary. 

A  proposal  from  the  Sunday-School  Society,  that  we 
should  publish  primary  Sunday-school  cards,  was  referred 
to  the  Secretary,  with  full  power. 

It  was  voted  to  give  copies  of  our  publications  to  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Unions,  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
and  in  Troy,  New  York,  and  also  a  portion  of  them  to  Rev. 
Mr.  Willis  of  Nashua,  New  Hampshire,  for  the  use  named 
in  his  letter  of  application. 

Proposals  from  Messrs.  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Ca,  relating 
to  the  sale  of  stereotype  plates,  were  referred  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  Publications. 

Much  of  the  time  of  this  meeting  was  occupied  in  c<Nisid- 
ering  the  claims  of  feeble  societies,  applicants  for  aid ;  and 
appropriations  to  several  of  them  were  made.     ' 


NOTICES  OF  BOOKS. 

Bacon's  Essays;  with  Annotations  hy  Richard  Whatkly,  D.  D., 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  From  the  Second  London  ESditioD, 
revised.     New  York:  C.  S.  Francis  &  Co.     1857. 

Following  each  of  the  well-known  Essays  of  Lord  Bacon  are 
annotations,  containing  four  or  five  pages  to  each  page  of  text. 
They  are  made  up  of  such  observations  as  had  occurred  to  the 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  145 

shed  prelate  from  time  to  time,  to  which  are  added  occa- 
astrative  quotations  from  his  numerous  published  works. 
)tes  were  put  together  by  a  friend,  who  has  added,  in  foot- 
:planatioDS  of  obsolete  words  and  phrases.  Occasionally 
(t  seem  unnecessarily  minute  and  repetitious;  but  they 
e  an  instructive  study  of  the  changes  through  which  our 
i  has  passed.  We  are  also  bound  to  add,  that  some  of  the 
tns  do  not  indicate  the  best  judgment  or  taste.  But,  taken 
)le,  they  add  much  to  the  interest  of  these  far-famed  Eck 
*ew  modern  writers  have  the  shrewd  practical  knowledge 
tssessed  by  Bishop  Whately ,  and  his  power  of  illustrating 
ise  point  by  a  homely  comparison  has  not  been  excelled 
I  days  of  Franklin.  Of  the  religious  spirit  of  these  an- 
I,  the  reader  may  judge  by  the  seventh  article  in  this 
which  is  taken  from  the  work  here  noticed.  It  is  a  long 
:e  we  took  up  a  more  edifying  book. 

preached  at  Trinity  Chapel,  Brighton,  By  the  late 
''rederick  W.  Robertson,  M.  A.  From  the  Third  Lon- 
dition.     Boston :  Ticknor  and  Fields.     1857. 

:  Sermons  are  not  printed  as  they  were  written  before  de- 
or  are  they  notes  taken  at  the  time  of  delivery  :  they  are 
ctions"  of  sermons,  sometimes  dictated  by  the  preacher 
and  sometimes  written  out  by  his  own  hand.  They  are 
d  wFthout  corrections  or  additions.  The  fact  explains  a 
ibruptness  of  style,  and  also  an  occasional  fragmentary 
•n.  They  have  attracted  much  attention  in  various  quar- 
their  freshness  and  independence  of  thought.  The 
evidently  cared  little  for  old  forms  of  belief  and  the 
itine  of  homiletic  subjects,  but  poured  out  the  honest 
ms  of  a  strong  and  well-furnished  mind.  These  are  ser- 
at  one  can  read,  not  only  with  profit,  but  with  pleasure, 
ading  doctrinal  bearings  are  in  harmony  with  the  liberal 
of  our  age.  The  sermon  on  "Vicarious  Sacrifice"  ex- 
lat  doctrine  in  a  form  to  which  no  Unitarian  can  object, 
popular  representations  on  this  subject  it  expressly  says, 
a  view  so  horrible  no  wonder  Unitarianism  has  recoiled," 
V.  NO.  I.  13 


146  NOTICES   OF  BOOKS. 

To  the  list  of  able  preachers  in  the  English  Church  who  have  crit- 
icised the  traditional  theology,  and  have  repudiated  it,  the  name  of 
Robertson  is  to  be  now  added,  with  many  regrets  that  a  ministry 
of  such  rare  freshness  and  power  was  not  longer  enjoyed  on  earth. 

A  Half- Century  of  the  Unitarian  Controversy,  with  particular 
Reference  to  its  Origin ,  its  Course,  and  its  Prominent  Subjects 
among  the  CongregationaUsts  of  Massachusetts.  With  an  Ajh 
pendix.  By  George  E.  Ellis.  Boston  :  Crosby,  Nichols,  & 
Co.     1857. 

We  have  before,  in  another  connection,  alluded  to  this  remark- 
able book,  so  distinguished  for  its  thoroughness  of  research  and 
candor  of  tone,  and  destined,  as  no  doubt  it  is,  to  take  a  high  and 
trusted  place  among  the  best  contributions  to  our  ecclesiastical  hi»- 
tory.  A  new  generation  has  come  upon  the  stage  of  action  since 
the  Unitarian  Controversy  abated  from  its  former  warmth ;  and 
many  need  just  such  a  book  as  this  in  order  to  understand  the  his- 
torical position  of  religious  parties,  on  what  points  these  have  di- 
yided,  and  what  results  have  been  reached.  We  believe  Dr.  Ellis 
to  be  a  safe  guide  to  an  inquiring  mind.  Of  course  his  book  has 
called  forth  comments  and  protests.  But  we  have  not  seen  evi* 
dence  that  he  has  been  convicted  of  any  misstatements,  while  all 
have  borne  witness  to  the  general  fairness  of  his  temper.  Of  the 
estimation  in  which  his  work  is  held  abroad,  we  have  seen  a  grati- 
fying  proof.  Some  hundred  copies  of  it  have  been  ordered  for 
distribution  in  England,  from  a  desire  that  a  work  of  such  rare 
ability  should  extend  its  influence  beyond  the  community  for  which 
it  was  chiefly  designed. 

Sermons,  By  Rev.  Ephraim  Peabody,  D.  D.  ,  Minister  of  King's 
Chapel,  Boston.  With  a  Memoir.  Boston  :  Crosby,  Nichols, 
&  Co.     1857. 

This  precious  memorial  of  an  honored  brother  has  been  eagerly 
sought  by  thousands  who  knew  and  loved  the  departed.  It  is  rare 
that  a  book  carries  with  it  such  unity  of  impression ;  the  chaste 
and  reserved  Memoir,  and  the  simple,  direct,  and  earnest  Sermons, 
are  in  moral  keeping  with  that  spiritual  and  thoughtful  face  that 


NOTIOSS   OF  BOOKS.  14T 

It  from  the  frontispiece.  We  are  grateful  for  such  a  me- 
}f  one  who  adorned  the  profession  he  loved.  His  sermons 
It  " great  sermons,"  to  attract  the  multitude;  they  \vere 
Dg  better,*^  a  calm,  judicious  treatment  of  the  highest 
addressed  to  men  of  thought,  remarkable  oflentimes  for 
stive  reticence,  and  always  bearing  the  signs  of  the  in- 
conviction  of  the  truth  of  what  he  uttered.  Between  these 
)  and  certain  ''sensation  sermons,"  so  popular  in  some 
),  straining  afler  effect  by  the  use  of  high-flown  expres- 
id  odd  and  startling  conceits,  there  seems  to  be  a  whole  age 
ire  and  refinement.  We  feel  sure  that  this  volume  will 
swer  the  end,  so  earnestly  desired  by  its  author  in  his  brief 
f  dedication,  of  impressing  upon  all  who  read  it  the  convic- 
lat  the  only  permanent  happiness  of  this  life,  the  only  true 
r  the  life  to  come,  are  to  be  drawn  from  a  religious  conse- 
9f  one's  self  to  God,  and  to  the  performance  of  the  duties 
le,  in  his  love,  appoints." 

[  Messrs.  Ticknor  and  Fields  we  have  received  from  time 
copies  of  the  series  of  books  they  are  publishing  in  the 
''  blue  and  gilt"  style  which  has  proved  so  popular.  In 
es  are  included  Longfellow^ 8  Prose  Works,  2  vols. ;  Long- 
Poetical  Works,  2  vols. ;  JVfrs.  Jameson^s  Loves  of  the 
vol. ;  Gerald  Massey^s  Poems,  1  vol. ;  Leigh  Hunt^s  Po* 
ols.  ;  and  Whittier^s  Poems,  2  vols.  These  names  prove 
same  excellent  judgment  and  taste  which  have  prepared  the 
3  exterior,  have  also  guided  the  choice  of  authors.  We 
ified  in  hearing  that  immense  numbers  of  these  volumes 
m  sold.  It  is  a  fit  reward  to  the  publishers,  and  a  hope- 
c  of  the  public  taste. 

lays  at  Rugby.    By  an  Old  Boy.    Boston :  Ticknor  and 
.     1857. 

iGHTFUL  picture  of  school  days  in  the  loved  presence  and 
le  benignant  guardianship  of  the  late  Dr.  Arnold.  We 
rer  met  with  a  work  which  so  clearly  describes  the  situa- 
feelings  of  English  schoolboys ;  and  every  page  seema 
by  charming  reminiscences. 


148  NOTICES   OF  BOOKS. 

White  Lies.    A  Novel.    By  Charles  Reade.    Boston:  Ticknor 
and  Fields.     1857. 

This  work  is  published  in  parts,  two  of  which,  or  one  half  of 
the  entire  novel,  we  have  read.  Marked  by  tie  same  fresh  and 
earnest  manner,  and  the  vigorous  thought  of  the  author's  former 
works,  it  will  be  sure  to  find  a  large  circle  of  readers,  who,  we 
suspect,  will  not  at  all  like  the  form  in  which  it  is  presented  to 
them.  When  our  interest  is  once  awakened,  we  cannot  patiently 
wait  a  fortnight  to  see  the  denouement  of  the  story. 


Harpers'  Publications.  —  From  the  teeming  press  of  the 
Messrs.  Harper,  of  New  York,  we  have  received  the  follow- 
ing:— 

Discoveries  in  North  and  Central  Africa  in  1849-1855.  By 
Henry  Barth.  This  is  the  first  of  three  thick  octavo  volumes, 
with  numerous  maps  and  engravings,  which  promise  to  give  us 
the  most  recent  and  full  information  of  the  country  that  is  awaken- 
ing the  most  interest  throughout  the  Christian  world.  We  cmly 
regret  that  the  style  is  so  dififuse.  The  value  of  the  work  would 
be  greatly  increased  were  its  bulk  diminished  two  thirds. 

Random  Sketches  and  Notes  of  European  Travel  in  1856.  By 
Rev.  John  E.  Edwards,  A.  M.,  —  a  Methodist  clergyman  from 
Richmond,  Virginia,  who  takes  the  usual  route  of  European  trav- 
ellers, and  sees  what  has  been  described  a  hundred  times  before, 
without  adding  anything  to  our  previous  knowledge,  or  gaining  any 
merit  on  the  score  of  correctness  or  good  taste. 

The  StudenVs  Gibbon,  The  History  of  the  Decline  and  FaU  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  hy  Edward  Gibbon,  abridged,  incorporating 
the  Researches  of  recent  Commentators,  By  William  Smith, 
LL.  D.,  Editor  of  the  Classical  and  Latin  Dictionaries, —  whose 
name  will  be  a  sufficient  guaranty  for  knowledge,  accuracy,  and 
painstaking.  This  is  the  best  book  we  know  of  for  a  beginner  in 
reading  history.  With  its  clear  arrangement,  full  tables,  one  hun- 
dred engravings,  and  generally  good  historical  style,  we  would 
have  given  much  for  such  a  help  in  the  days  of  our  first  acquaint- 
ance with  Roman  history. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  149 

JTie  Professor.  By  the  Author  of  "Jane  Eyre."  This  story 
was  written  before  those  works  which  have  given  the  authoress 
80  wide  a  reputation.  Failing  to  find  a  publisher,  it  is  now  sent 
out  to  sail  in  the  wake  of  the  successful  craft.  But  it  must  haye 
been  successful  had  it  been  the  first  issued.  The  incidents  and 
characters  of  the  tale  are  few,  but  everything  stands  out  with 
wonderful  distinctness,  and  the  interest  is  kept  up  with  singular 
and  onabating  power. 

Married  or  Single,  By  Catherine  E.  Sedgwick.  All  read- 
ers of  those  stories  which  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  were 
in  everybody's  hands  will  rejoice  to  renew  the  pleasure  of  follow- 
ing so  careful  a  writer,  so  close  an  observer  of  life,  so  kindly 
iuid  genial  a  guide,  as  Miss  Sedgwick.  We  thank  her  for  a  book 
which  must  have  a  ministry  for  good.  We  see  that  an  Eng- 
Hsh  edition  of  it  has  lately  been  published,  which,  as  the  Lon- 
^D  Inquirer  says,  "  has  been  made  more  orthodox.^ ^  It  is  not 
easy  to  imagine  who  could  have  felt  justified  in  taking  such  liber- 
ties with  this  book. 

Boat  Life  in  Egypt  and  Nubia,  and  Tent  Life  in  the  Holy  Land, 
4Te  two  interesting  books  by  William  C.  Prime,  who,  with  no 
pietence  to  learning  or  thorough  investigation,  in  a  pleasing  style 
inducts  his  readers  through  lands  that  have  a  strange  interest  to 
^  minds.     The  chief  criticism  to  be  ofiered  in  regard  to  his  books 

« 

IS  a  habit  of  dwelling  too  long  upon  unimportant  details. 

The  Orations  of  Demosthenes,  translated,  with  Notes,  by 
Charles  Rann  Kennedy,  2  vols.  A  part  of  Harpers'  Classical 
*Jbrary,  got  up  in  the  style  of  Bohn's.  Many  mere  English  read- 
^  will  desire  to  get  some  idea  of  the  most  famous  orations  of 
^tiqnity,  and  for  this  end  will  value  these  beautiful  volumes. 

•4  Child's  History  of  Greece,  by  John  Bonner,  is  an  attempt 
^  make  the  history  of  that  country  intelligible  and  interest- 
^?  to  a  child.  For  this  purpose  a  simple  style  is  adopted,  and 
dimerous  engravings  ar^  introduced.  We  believe  the  work  is 
^garded  as  essentially  correct  and  successful  by  those  who  are 
^^DQpetent  judges. 

^Ae  Northwest  Coast,  or  Three  Years*  Residence  in  Washington 
^^rritory^  by  James  G.  Swan,  contains  the  fullest  information  we 

13* 


150   BECOBD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  XXTELLIGSNCE. 

* 

have  anywhere  obtained  of  a  region  little  known,  but  whiehf  in 
the  westward  advance  of  our  population,  must  soon  arrest  public 
attention.  It  has  full  accounts  of  the  country,  its  productions, 
minerals,  trade,  native  people,  &c.,  with  directions  to  emigrants. 

Virginia  Illustrated,  containing  a  Visit  to  the  Virginian  Canaan, 
and  the  Adventures  of  Porte  Crayon  and  his  Cousins,  with  nearly 
one  hundred  and  fifty  illustrations,  from  all  of  which  negro  life 
in  Virginia,  and  the  ordinary  business  and  amusements  of  its 
people,  may  be  about  as  well  seen  as  by  a  journey  through  that 
State. 

The  Harpers^  Monthly  Story-Book  appears  punctually,  to  delight 
all  youthful  readers  with  the  fascinating  tales  of  Mr.  Abbott. 

The  Harpers*  Monthly  Magazine  is  the  product  of  a  talent  and 
tact  which  know  how  to  attain  an  astonishing  success ;  and  if 
many  of  its  articles  are  not  exactly  to  our  taste,  it  has  occasionally 
a  contribution,  under  the  head  of  "  Editor's  Table,"  which  fwr 
true  wisdom  and  cheerful  religious  influence  would  stamp  a  high 
value  on  any  publication. 


RECORD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTEL- 
LIGENCE. 

May  24,  1857.  —  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Allen  closed  his  mlmstry  as 
pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Bangor. 

June  1,  1857.  —  The  first  Church  in  Washington  Village,  Bos- 
ton, was  dedicated  to  public  worship.  Sermon  by  Rev.  N.  Hall, 
of  Dorchester.  Rev.  Mr.  Squire,  lately  of  Hallowell,  Me.,  is  at 
present  the  acting  pastor. 

June  4,  1857.  —  The  new  Unitarian  Church  in  Marietta,  Ohia, 
was  dedicated.     Sermon  by  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis. 

June  11,  1857.  —  Rev.  Stillman  Clarke  was  installed  pastor  of 
the  Unitarian  Church  in  Wilton,  N.  H.  Sermon  by  Rev.  M.  W. 
Willis,  of  Nashua. 


BEOOBD  OF  EYENT8  AND  GBNEBAX  STTELLiaEKCB.    151 

June  18,  1857.  —  Mr.  Edward  J.  YouDg  was  ordained  pastor 
of  the  Channing  Charch  at  Newton  Corner.  Sermon  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Thompson,  of  Salem. 

June  25,  1857. — The  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Wellington  as  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Tem- 
pleton  was  appropriately  commemorated,  amid  many  tokens  of 
affectionate  regard  for  this  venerable  father. 

June  28,  1857.  —  Rev.  R.  R.  Shippen  closed  his  ministry  as 
pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Chicago,  111. 

July  5,  1857.  —  Rev.  A.  A.  Conant,  afler  a  ministry  of  seven- 
teen years  in  Geneva,  111.,  entered  upon  the  duties  of  pastor  of  the 
Unitarian  Society  in  Rockford,  in  the  same  State. 

July  14,  1857.  —  The  annual  visitation  of  the  Cambridge  Di- 
vinity School  took  place  this  day.  The  following  persons  received 
certificates  of  the  completion  of  the  usual  course  of  theological 
study,  viz.  George  Washington  Bartlett,  Henry  William  Browne, 
Edward  Chipman  Guild,  George  Freeman  Noyes. 

On  the  same  day  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Hedge,  D.  D.  was  inau- 
gurated Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  and  Rev.  George  E. 
EUis,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology. 

♦^*  The  enterprising  firm  of  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.,  so  well 
known  to  all  our  readers,  have  removed  to  117  Washington  Street, 
and  now  occupy  the  large  and  airy  store  formerly  that  of  Jewett 
&  Co.  There  are  many  who,  among  the  pleasures  of  a  visit  to 
Boston,  always  include  a  purchase  of  some  of  the  books  published 
by  this  firm;  and  the  pleasant  memories  of  No.  Ill  will  be  re- 
newed at  No.  117. 

*«*  Two  numbers  of  the  Christian  Examiner,  under  its  new 
editorial  management,  have  now  been  issued.  They  afford  abun- 
dant evidence  that  the  high  character  which  this  Review  has  so 
long  maintained  will  be  preserved,  and  that  fresh  interest  and  zeal 
will  be  brought  to  its  support.  Though  published  at.  the  Rooms 
of  the  Association,  21  Bromfield  Street,  the  Association  has  no 


152    BECOBD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE. 

connection  whateyer  with  it,  but  extends  to  it  the  best  wishes  for  . 
the  prosperity  of  so  able  an  advocate  of  sound  learning  and  cheer- 
ful piety.  We  rejoice  in  the  hopes  of  a  large  increase  of  its  cir^ 
culation.  A  work  which  has  done  more  honor  to  our  literature 
than  all  others  put  together  should  receive  fourfold  its  present 
support. 

*^*  The  Year-Book  of  the  Unitarian  Congregational  Oiurches 
for  1858  wiU  be  issued,  as  usual,  about  the  first  of  December. 
Any  suggestions  with  a  view  of  correcting  mistakes,  supplying 
deficiencies,  or  in  any  manner  making  this  little  annual  more  use- 
ful, will  be  gratefully  received,  if  sent  at  once  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Association. 


*^*  A  late  number  of  the  London  Inquirer  says:  "  An  invalua- 
ble work  is  now  being  published,  in  parts  of  2«.  %d,  each,  by  Mr. 
Darling,  8 1  Great  Queen  Street,  Lincoln 's-Inn-Fields.  It  is  entitled 
<  Cyclopsdia  Bibliographica :  a  Library  Manual  of  Theological  and 
General  Literature,  and  Guide  to  Books  for  Authors,  Preachers, 
Students,  and  Literary  Men.'  It  is  in  fact  a  complete  catalogue  of 
works  on  theology,  arranged  according  to  subject.  The  first  part, 
which  is  now  before  us,  contains  160  pages,  cataloguing  the  vari- 
ous translations,  editions,  and  commentaries  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. Some  idea  of  its  thorough  completeness  may  be  formed  by 
taking  a  single  head,  such  as  '  Quotations  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  the  New,'  where  not  only  are  eight  books  described 
which  are  exclusively  given  to  this  subject,  but  seventeen  other 
volumes  are  cited  as  containing  chapters,  papers,  or  sermons  on 
the  question.  The  writers  quoted  extend  from  the  earliest  Fathers 
to  Norton  and  Jowett,  and  no  trace  of  sectarianism  is  anywhere 
apparent.  No  divine  should  be  without  this  publication,  which 
will  be  finished  in  twenty-one  parts."  Orders  will  be  received  at 
the  Rooms  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 


ACKKOWLBDGMENTS.  158 


« 


(( 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

^  the  months  of  Jmie,  July,  and  August  the  followmg  sums 
were  received:  — 

^^^     1.   Books  sold  m  St.  Louis,  Mo.,     .         .         .     $  97.00 
"      **         "       "    by  Rev.  D.  A.  Russell,  .        .        .     6.00 
From  First  Parish  in  Hingham,  in  addition,  1.00 

*^    Books  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,     ....     4.00 

2.  From  Rev.  J.  F.  W.  Ware's  Society,  Cam- 
bridgeport, 125.00 

3.  Books  sold  by  Miss  Anderson,         .        .        .    16.00 

4.  From  Westminster  Society,  Providence,  R.I. ,    70.49 
"    Quarterly  Journal, 1,00 

"        6.    From  First  Parish  in  Hingham,  in  addition,     .  1.00 

8.      "      Society  in  Uxbridge,  Mass.,      .        .  35.00 

XO.      "      E.  R.  Hoar,  for  Kansas  Mission  and  Mead- 

ville  School,        ....  50.00 

"     Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

X2.    From  George  Hoadly,  Esq.,  for  William  Rob- 
erts, Madras, 25.00 

X5.    Quarterly  Journals  in  Cohasset,  .        .        .  3.00 

X8.          "                **          Stow,    ....  4.00 

"     Tooks  in  Lancaster,  N.  H.,        .         .         .  .45 

X9.    Quarterly  Journals,         .         .        .        .        .  3.00 

**     From  a  Friend,  for  India  Mission,        .         .  5.00 

20.    Quarterly  Journals  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  .        .  25.00 

S2.  ^  Books  in  Montreal,  Canada,        .        .        .  32.91 

"         "     sold  in  South  Boston,   ....  3.37 

^'     Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

"     From  Society  in  Gloucester,    .        .         .        .17.24 

S4.    Books  sold  in  West  Bridgewater,        .        .  .50 

"        "        "    by  Rev.  F.  R.  Newell,  .        .        .  18.53 

26.    From  a  Friend,  by  Rev.  A.  H.  Conant,       .  10.00 

29.    Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 


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154  ACKHOWLED6MEKTS. 

June  29.    From  First  Parish  in  Dorchester,        .         .    $  162.95 

<<    SO.    Books  sold  in  Beverly, 22.00 

<<  "     From  a  Friend,  for  India  Mission,                .          1.00 

"  "     Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  June,          •        .         •   84.19 

Joly     1.    Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

**  2.    From  First  Parish  in  Dorchester,  in  addition,  •     5.00 

"      "        '*     James  Draper, 6.00 

"      "     Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

"6.  "              "            .....           1.00 

"  **    From  Rev.  George  F.  Channing,  for  preaching,    17.00 

"      7.    Quarterly  Journals, 3.00 

"      8.  "  "  2.00 

"  9.    Books  sold  in  Newhuryport,       .        .         .          5.00 

"  "        "          '*      East  Marshfield,         .        .        .      7.65 

"      "     Quarterly  Journals, 3.00 

"  "     From  Society  in  Weston,        .        .         .        .51.55 

"  "        "    Pottstown  Unitarians,  for  India  Mission,       8.00 

"    11.    Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

"  <*     From  J.  K.  Smith,  towards  Life-memhership,        5.00 

"  "     Books  sold  by  H.  Hyatt,        .         .         .        .  •   3.35 

"  **        "         "    in  Syracuse,  N.  Y., .         .         .         12.46 

"  13.    From  First  Parish  in  Duxbury,       .         .        .    11.75 

"     "     Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"    14.  "  " 2.00 

"    16.  '«  «  1.00 

*'  "    Books  sold  by  Rev.  W.  H.  Cudworth,     .        .    10.00 

"  "     From  Society  in  East  Boston,      .         .         .         40.00 

"    17.   Books  sold  in  Deerfield, 13.54 

**  "     Quarterly  Journals  in  Deerfield,  .         .         .         12.00 

"     **     Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"  18.   From  Rev.  N.  L.  Frothingham,  D.  D.,  to  make 

himself  a  Life-member,      ....    30.00 

"  "     From  a  Friend,  for  Book  Fund,           .      -.         10.00 

"  "        "           "         "  General  Purposes,      .        .    10.00 

"    20.   Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"  "     From  Rufus  Wyman,  Esq.,  for  Book  Fund,      .   50.00 

<<  21.   Quarterly  Journals,    .        ,        .        .        .          2.00 


AOKNOWLEBGHEHTS.  155 

Inly  Si.  From  Society  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  .        .      $85.95 

"   24.  Quarterly  Journals  in  East  Marshfield,     .         .  4.25 

"  25.  Books  sold  by  Rev.  T.  S.  Lathrop,      .         .  6.37 

"     "      **        «     "  Rev.  W.  H.  Cudworth,      .        .  24.07 

"     "  Quarterly  Journal,       .....  1.00 

"  27.  From  Philemon  Putnam,          ....  5.00 

"    "  Bookssoldby  Phillips,  Sampson,  &  Co.,       .  10.40 

"    "  Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"  30.  Books  sold  by  Whittemore,  Niles,  and  Hall,  6.32 

"    "  Quarterly  Journal,  ......  1.00 

^'    "  Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  July,       .        .        .  56.13 
^^'  1.  From  a  Sabbath-School  Teacher,  for  India  Mis- 
sion,       3.00 

2.  Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

4.  From  Ed.  W.  Clarke,  Esq.,  for  Book  Fund,  50.00 

"     **  Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"     6.  Books  sold  by  Rev.  E.  P.  Bond,          .        .  61.87 

7.  Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

8.  Books  sold  in  South  Boston,        .         .         .  3.90 
'*  From  C.  S   Fowler,  for  Books  sold  in  Wash- 
ington,   23.75 

10.  From  William  H.  Hart,  Esq.,         .         .        .  100.00 

"  Books  sold  by  Thomas  D.  Howard,      .         .  3.87 

U.  From  a  Friend,  for  India  Mission,    .        .         .24.00 

12.  Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

'*  Books  sold  by  Nathaniel  Davis,       .         .        .3.10 

13.  Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

19.         "  «< 2.00 

22.         "  "  2.00 

24.         "  "......  2.00 

**  From  Society  in  Newport,  R.  L,  for  Madras  Mission,  6.00 
"  "  "  "  "  India  Mission,  5.00 
"  "  "  '  "  "  General  Pur- 
poses, .  66.23 
"  "  "  Fall  River,  Mass.,  .  .  .  10.00 
"  Books  sold  in  New  York,  ....  5.00 
27.      "          "      Troy, 4.00 


156  ACKHOWLEDGMENTS. 

Aug.  27.  Books  sold  by  Rufus  Jacobs,         ...  $  7.00 

*'  From  a  Friend, 1.00 

'^  Books  sold  by  Miss  Anderson,     .  7.00 

31.  From  Miss —,  of  Virginia,  .    10.00 

"       *^      Society  in  Marblehead,                .  98.16 

*'  Books  sold  at  Rooms,  in  August,      .  .   63.63 


^^ 


a  XJniUaioa  JiMtmadan,  31  BmmliL-M  IJircel  C' 
'J  (if  itie  A.  r.  A.  fVWiplciet     Sfl  Tole. 

wir  vf  Mn.  Wnni.     A.  C.  A.  E^on. 
r  uf  U.  Ware,  Jr.    1  voL  . 
LiksoTR  Wiire,Jf.    4  yoIi. 

^~t**  UctnocTrtition.    Stb  tMillon.     . 
i-','e  CtocD-inul  I.Mtiir(4.    liitbThoiwuL 

Hy  IVIT.    ailEdiiioo. 
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11'oujil.is.    lwl(Mod^7Il.A.Uik^      ,      ^ 

aiuiari  rriafti[ilu  nMUinnia].    3d  Kditiun.  I-W 

'  <  t'lucnt  of  ll(yuwn«.        ....    1.00 

!  I UMjTf.    Noyce's  CoOMtioB.    W Effitiom-  lOO 

.  li  itic  ^iKlT.    20  Eilkioia.    . 

'  n-MH,,  iyKixini:  ufVotji-r.    lly  J.  P.  Quke,     . 

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;i<I>!  X<^wii.    Itj-  N.  WomMuT.      .... 

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GmiiM  uf  liuld.    Prooi  C.  A.  Bortid. 

Thi;  Aliar  iti  Home.     Sih  Edition.. 

'  '    ■        -      SeWI  Volume.     .         .         .        •         . 

riniliition and  Hotiii.    3  v^U. 

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■h.tTriiiilj- 

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!  .MihU  arid  Otijodd  uf  Uoligiuua  ICantrlnlge.  S  v\iU.  I.^') 
I  jetnuUin;  tif  tbu  Trinity. XjQO 


I  ijetnuUin;  tif  tbi:'i!riut< 


NEW  WOttKS  m  PRESS. 


••  nP/  Uiia^  tvlieum  tlnabr." 

.'  DDIOBTALIIT.    By  Un-.  C.  a  Ska». 

m. 

j  THE  GUSI'GL  SAnttA-nrEi   lltfir Otijia,  j 

IHip  umib  ilntmid. 

IT. 

Tnii  YEAIt-BOOK   OF   THE  rWrTAIlIA*  \ 
RATIONAL  CnDBCnES  FOB  iSa^    T<i  ^  I 


BIliCAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOClATIOIf^ 


EJEECUTrVH  coMiaTxac^ 


PreiiiieurS 


Rnr.  SAMimL  K.  LrrTimop,  D-D. 
Bkv.  EowAitD  B.  lUuu  UD. 

UON.    StCPHRX    F*niIUKEH, 

Rev.  IIcvrt  A.  Afn.Es,  J}.D^  Secretary. 
CALvoi  W.  Ci.,vnK,  Eso^  TYtimtrer. 
HoK.  Aj-bbst  F&juuku. 
Ekv,  FnEDEnic  H.  Mr.DOR,  D.IX 

•^      WlLLUM    B-   AiOKU. 

Jdiik  H.  Bnacns.  Esu. 

Eev,  HHsnv  W.  Bellows,  D.D. 
"    Gboihht  W.  Huswbji,  D.I>. 
'*    CAZSSAr  Palpbet,  D.D. 
"     'Wit.cuu  G.  Ei-itn-,  D.0- 


',*  The  OfBcfi  or  ihc  AmMcIftUon  1«  «l  S1 1 
;  Jirfd  SJrccl,  Btwloii-  ITif!  Bfcrelaiy  will  i 
,  be  tliPTC  L'very  ilay  from  I'J  io  2  o'clotK. 

Applicnriofu  for  ProacbLTa  may  be  ninilt;  tu  tin- 


.  Rev.  ChaflcB  Onf 
idf  tlift   TrvtiJ"': 
1  AfwnciiiOnn,  ni   ' 
flu  lllm  tilers.     ^ 
r twly  Joumnl,. —  ]i 
All  sbiiulnrd  I'liitAriEiu  books  for  Qolb. 
L*  ihirj  jragc  of  vovl-t. 


place.  Tilt'  tiffii-c 
ttiu  Hooins  of  t)(c 
"ln^v  iiifiy  bp  muJe 
piv«Ml  for  1U(*  Quiir- 
tlullar  per  annain. 
For  prion 


J 


THE 


QUARTERLY    JOURNAL. 


Voi;.  V.  BOSTON,  JANUARY  1,  1858.  No.  2. 

THE  UNITARIAN  DENOMINATION. 

▲  8XBM0N  PREACHED    BEFOBE    THE   AUTUMNAL    CONTEN- 
TION, IN   STBACUSE,  N.  T.,   OCTOBER   13,   1867. 

BY  REY.    C.  H.   BRIGHAM. 

BUT    WB   WILL    NOT    BOAST    OF    THINGS   WITHOUT    MEASURE,  BUT 
ACCOBDING   TO   THE   MEA8UBE   OF  THE   BULE  WHICH  GOD  HATH 

DiSTBiBUTED  TO  US. — 2  ConBthiaBs  X.  13. 

On  these  annual  occasions  of  religious  conference,  it  is 
our  wont  to  say  a  good  deal  about  ourselves  as  a  sect,  to  dis- 
cuss our  position  and  prospects,  to  mourn  over  our  deficien- 
cies, and  to  share  our  mutual  grief  and  cheer.  The  theme 
lias  become  trite  and  the  story  old  in  that  New  England 
region  where  most  of  these  Conventions  have  been  held. 
But  I  am  obliged  to  remember  that  in  the  region  where  we 
are  now  assembled  the  topic  may  not  be  so  worn ;  that  the 
statement,  wearisome  elsewhere,  may  here  be  timely ;  and 
ibat  good  may  come  even  from  the  revival  of  common- 
places.   The  Unitarian  religion,  though  not  quite  new  here^ 

VOL.  V.  NO.  n.  14 


158  THE   UKITASIAN  DENOMINATION. 

has  not  yet  become  a  prevalent  religion.  This  church 
stands  solitary  and  separate,  with  no  neighbor  in  its  own 
communion.  It  is  an  exotic  here,  however  carefully  nur- 
tured and  highly  prized.  The  faith  which  it  holds  has  not 
grown  here  from  any  original  root,  by  any  inevitable  spring- 
ing, like  the  same  faith  in  our  Puritan  communities.  I  shall 
offer  no  apology,  therefore,  for  introducing  the  meetings  of  a 
Unitarian  Convention  in  this  place  by  a  statement  of  some 
things  which  may  belong  to  its  subsequent  full  discussions ; 
for  giving  an  outline  merely  of  what  others  may  argue ;  and 
for  mentioning  views  which  some  may  call  superficial  and 
others  sectarian.  I  shall  speak  briefly  of  the  misfortune, 
the  advantage,  the  error,  and  the  encouragement  of  Unita- 
rianism  as  a  form  of  faith,  and  of  the  Unitarian  body  as  a 
religious  body. 

We  will  begin  by  considering  our  misfortune,  perhaps  we 
may  say  our  weakness.  This,  of  course,  is  more  in  exter- 
nals than  in  the  spirit,  more  in  fact  than  in  dogma.  We 
are,  I  may  say  first,  few  in  numbers,  a  handful,  almost  the 
smallest  of  the  sects,  insignificant  in  the  count  of  believers, 
—  what  the  Spartan  band  was  against  Persian  hosts.  We 
come  nearly  at  the  foot  of  the  list,  when  they  take  reckon- 
ing of  church  buildings,  of  church-members,  or  of  ministers. 
We  make  but  a  sorry  figure  in  comparison  with  Methodists 
and  Baptists,  the  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists,  with 
their  myriads  of  churches  and  their  millions  of  communi- 
cants. This  numerical  insignificance,  indeed,  proves  nothing 
concerning  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  our  opinions.  But 
it  has  great  practical  weight  in  fixing  our  influence.  There 
is  real  strength  in  numbers,  though  these  may  be  on  the 
wrong  side,  and  be  banded  in  support  of  error.  A  member 
of  one  of  these  large  denominations  feels  strong  in  the 
quantity  of  support.     He  has  this  immense  force  of  masses 


THE   UNITARIAN  DENOMINATION.  159 

belpiDg  him  to  stand  and  strive.  We  cannot,  except  in  a 
very  limited  sphere,  have  this  feeling  of  strength  from  num- 
bers. We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  be,  at  least  nomi- 
nall  J,  in  a  hopeless  minority,  —  a  minority  as  compared  with 
^y  single  denomination,  an  insignificant  minority  as  com- 
pared with  all  Evangelical  sects  in  their  union. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  our  misfortune  to  have  a  bad 
name ;  not  bad  in  itself,  but  bad  by  the  association  attached 
to  it.   It  is  the  name  of  a  heresy ;  of  a  heresy  to  which  for 
fifteen  centuries  the  idea  of  infidelity,  irreverence,  and  blas- 
phemy has  been  joined ;  of  a  heresy  on  which  ages  have 
piled  anathemas  so  heavy  and  high  that  their  defiant  mass 
stands  like  the  Pyramids.    It  is  the  name,  indeed,  of  many 
iieresies  combined,  representing  in  one  sound  all  that  is  bad 
^^^  tie  memory  of  Arian  and  Socinian,  Sabellian  and  Pela- 
S^^n,  Ebionite  and  Arminian,  —  a  name  which  believers  are 
^ught  to  dread,  as  the  synonyme  for  soul-destroying  error. 
Tlxe  tones  in  which  it  is  described  are  tones  of  sadness,  pity, 
^^   indignation,  such  as  bewail  impending  fate,  or  condemn 
^J^questionable  sin.     It  is  the  threat  and  the  weapon  which 
the  guardians  of  faith  find  it  most  convenient  to  use.    They 
w  more  than  reprove  a  movement  when  they  say  that  it 
tends  to  Unitarianism."    They  bespeak  for  it  contempt 
^^d  suspicion.     It  is  needless  to  deny  that  our  faith  suffers 
from  this  prejudice  of  its  name,  and  that  it  must  continue 
^  suffer  so  long  as  it  is  identified  with  ancient  and  certified 
'^^I'esies,  and  so  long  as  it  traces  its  descent  through  Arian- 
wna  and  feels  called  upon  to  defend  Arianism.     Change  of 
^^nie  now,  however,  would  be  no  remedy.    The  same  story 
^ould  be  told  of  us  under  the  changed  name,  and  the  real 
Btigma  would  only  have  another  epithet.     Even  should  we 
^sume  the  name  of  some  other  sect,  our  old  reproach  would 
^  &stened  to  it.     Since  the  Christian  denomination  have 


160  THB  UKITABIAN  DBKOIOKATIOK. 

come  to  fraternise  with  us,  thej  are  caUed  in  manj  quarten 
^Unitarian  Baptists." 

It  is  the  misfortune  of  the  Unitarian  body,  again,  that 
it  has  no  symbolic  bond  of  union,  no  fixed  and  common 
creed,  no  established  liturgy,  no  summary,  either  of  doctrine 
or  worship,  to  which  aj^^eal  can  be  made.    The  posture  of 
our  churches  is  one  <^  extreme  independence,  and  the 
hymns,  the  prayers,  the  covenants,  are  as  various  as  the 
tastes  of  the  preachers.    Other  sec^  however  free  their 
interpretation  of  their  creeds,  however  large  their  varia- 
tions, have  at  any  rate  these  creeds  in  possession.     They 
are  bound  by  catechism  or  prayer-book,  though  they  make 
sometimes  long  excursions  from  the  letter  of  catediism  and 
prayer-book.    They  can  always  come  back  again.    It  may 
be  said  that  ^  the  Bible  "  is  our  creed ;  that  we  take  this  as 
enough,  and  want  no  other.    But  it  lu^pens  that  the  Bible 
belongs  to  all  other  sects  and  systems  as  much  as  to  ours, 
and  therefore  it  belongs  to  no  one  distinctively.    The  Bible 
cannot,  in  any  sense,  be  considered  as  our  creed,  since  our 
reading  of  it  allows  its  various  teachings,  and  we  cannot 
condense  it  into  any  series  of  articles.     The  hundred  sym- 
bolic books  which  have  been  written  have  made  it  neces- 
sary  that  each  sect,  to  become  a  solid  unit,  should  have  its 
own  special  symbolic  book.     The  Koran  is  the  creed  of 
Islam,  because  no  teachers  have  dared  to  abridge  it  or  to 
improve  upon  it.     Sunnite  and  Shiite  alike  claim  this,  be- 
cause none  have  any  other.      Strangely  enough,  among 
Moslems  it  is  only  heretics  who  have  special  creed-books, 
and  the  Druses  of  Lebanon,  "  Unitarians  "  as  they  delight 
to  be  called,  are  singular  in  preferring  the  books  of  a  Caliph 
to  the  revelations  of  the  Prophet     With  all  the  objections 
to  a  creed  or  a  liturgy,  and  they  are  numerous,  there  is  a 
convenience  which  we  all  feel  in  having  such  a  starting- 


rSE   UKITABIAN  DENOIUKATION.  161 

|K)int;  such  a  guaranty,  —  something  to  show  when  we  are 
called  upon  for  our  faith,  —  a  pass^word  which  makes  us, 
however  separated  in  place,  in  tastes,  or  in  fortunes,  a 
homogeneous  body.  •  This  bond  we  have  not,  we  never  can 
have,  and  with  our  profession  of  freedom  we  ought  never 
to  have.     It  is  a  convenience  which   we  may  crave  at 
times,  but  which  we  must  make  up  our  minds  to  do  without. 
May  I  not  mention  as  another  misfortune  of  Unitarian- 
ism,  that  it  is  so  '^  coldly  intellectual,"  that  its  severe  truth- 
fuhiess  compels  it  to  judge  so  much  by  reason  only,  and  to 
shun  the  methods  of  influence  which  other  forms  of  faith 
are  able  heartily  to  try,  —  that  its  appeal  to  the  soul  is  so  ex- 
clasively  in  one  kind,  and  that  all  its  persuasions,  to  be  valid, 
^ust  reach  the  heart  through  the  mind,  rather  than  the 
Blind  through  the  heart,  —  that  our  sermons  must  be  essays, 
^d  our  prayer  meditation  more  than  a  cry  to  Grod  ?    You 
ZQaj  say  that  this  is  not  necessary,  and  that  our  faith  ought 
*o  be  as  emotional  as  any  faith,  as  ready  in  prayer  and  ex- 
portation and  earnest  excitement  as  any.     I  shall  not  dis- 
pute that.     I  speak  only  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not  so,  and 
^Wall  our  attempts  to  make  it  an  emotional' religion  have 
Bot  made  it  so.     These  attempts  are  spasmodic,  and  their 
feilure  only  shows  what  is  the  natural  tendency  of  our  re- 
ligious opinions,  to  exalt  intellect  above  feeling,  and  so  to 
throw  doubt  upon  those  rapturous  visions,  and  lyric  extrava- 
gances, with  which  the  larger  religious  bodies  arouse  and 
reinforce  their  piety.     Judged  by  the  standard  of  religious 
fervor  all  around  us,  we  are  a  cold  body  of  Christians,  —  hard 
to  please,  hard  to  excite,  —  and  we  shall  continue  to  be  so. 
I   instance  but   one   more  misfortune  of  our   religious 
system,  —  its  apparent  indifference,  if  not  hostility,  to  great 
religious  enterprises.    Men  look  on  and  see  that  we  do  very 
little  in  the  direct  propagation  even  of  our  own  religious 


162  TRS  WKiXAXUkS  DBKOMIKATl^Br. 

views,  that  we  make  scarcely  any  sacrifices  for  the  Church, 
for  its  missions  abroad  or  its  institutions  at  home.  Onr  faith 
seems  to  be  a  cautions  and  calcolating  faith,  which  prefers 
self-interest  to  the  Sayionr's  command,  and  asks  to  be  sure 
of  the  issae  before  it  dares  to  act  It  does  not  make  us 
selfish  exactly,  but  it  seems  to  make  us  slow  in  religious 
action,  unwilling  to  take  any  religious,  renture,  or  to  run 
any  risk  in  the  Master's  cause.  It  has  to  urge  its  few 
evangelists,  rather  than  choose  firom  the  many  who  ofier. 
Its  tendency  seems  to  be  to  curtail  religious  labor,  to  reduce 
the  institutions  and  seascms  of  religion  tiU,  in  8<»ne  places, 
nothing  is  left  but  a  single  service  on  Sunday,  to  shut  up 
churches  rather  than  to  open  them,  and  to  undervalue  all 
that  is  elsewhere  called  ^  the  means  of  grace.''  I  do  not, 
certmnly,  think  that  this  indifierence  to  religiouB  institu- 
tions, this  sparse  and  tardy  contribution  to  the  maehinery 
and  routine  oi  Christian  work,  is  altogether  the  result  of 
our  opinions.  In  many  places,  no  such  objecticHi  can  lie 
against  our  faith.  But  against  our  body,  as  a  whole,  it 
does  seem  to  lie,  and  no  fact  causes  more  annoyance  to 
those  in  our  number  who  are  really  devoted  and  self-sacri- 
ficing. Zeal,  in  our  body,  more  than  in  any  othar,  has  to 
drag  along  the  dead  weight  of  a  torpid  and  doubtful  con- 
servatism. 

These  are  the  unfortunate  circumstances  in  the  position 
of  the  Unitarian  body,  its  small  numbers,  its  unp<^ular 
name,  its  want  of  a  bond  of  union,  its  cold  intellectual  stand- 
ard, and  its  slackness  in  special  religious  effort  To  oSaet 
these,  there  are  as  many  circumstances  of  advantage.  While 
the  elements  of  weakness  are  external,  the  elements  of 
strength  are  radical,  are  such  as  no  pressure  of  external 
difficulties  can  destroy.  In  the  first  place,  Unitarianism 
has  a  great  advantage  in  the  simplicity  of  its  dogmas,  and 


THE  tTNtTABIAK  DEKOMIKATIOir.  168 

especiallj  of  its  leading  idea.      It  holds  the  doctrine  con- 
cerning Gk>d  in  its  simplest  and  most  intelligible  form,  need- 
ing no  explanation  to  make  it  clear  and  no  pleading  to  get 
round  its  confusion.     Its  one  Gk>d  is  one,  and  nothing  more, 
—one  in  the  most  plain  and  obyious  sense.    The  first  article 
of  our  faith  is  an  article  which  needs  no  adjustment,  which 
no  comment  can  improve,  and  no  speculation  can  darken. 
All  sects  profess  to  maintain  God's  nnitj,  and  we  must  grant 
to  all  that  in  some  form  they  do  maintain  it.     But  we  hold 
it  with  no  reservation,  with  no  mystic  or  mathematical  bar- 
rier fencing  it  off  from  our  familiar  handling.    There  is  no 
antecedent  discussioR  about  the  nature  of  God's  existence, 
which  must  delay  our  instant  and  logical  inference  of  his 
attributes.     Our  theology  begins  with  only  a  single  straight 
path,  not  with  a  double  or  triple  parting  of  the  ways,  which 
perplexes  at  the  start,  and  makes  all  progress  uncertain. 
Doubts  may  arise  as  we  go  on,  and  we  may  feel  the  solem- 
nity and  awe  when  we  get  among  the  high  mountains  of 
reh'gious  contemplation ;  but  the  first  setting  out  is  plain 
enough ;  we  do  not,  at  the  first,  grope  or  venture.    Now  this 
is  a  great  advantage,  to  have  at  the  first  what  all  are  trying 
to  reach  and  work  out.     It  is  a  great  advantage,  to  be 
spared  all  that  painful  argument,  that  search  for  analogies, 
that  array  of  texts,  that  sophistication  of  ordinary  intelli- 
gence, that  subtlety  of  self-blinding,  which  must  justify  the 
creed  doctrine  of  the  Being  of  Gk)d.     We  can  teach  our 
doctrine  to  little  children,  to  their  wonder,  their  reverence, 
their  love ;  not  merely  words  to  their  memories,  which  they 
must  answer  now,  but  may  only  comprehend  by  and  by,  but 
a  word  to  their  hearts  which  shall  satisfy  their  curious  ques- 
tioning.    We  can  reconcile  our  doctrine  with  all  parts  of 
the  sacred  volume,  its  story  of  creation  and  revelation,  its 
Jewish  and  its  Christian  portions.      Nay,  our  doctrine  of 


164  THB  UNITABIAK  DENOMIKATIOK. 

Deity  has  not  to  be  recondled  with  anjrthing.  It  takes  care 
of  itself*  We  have  no  occasion  to  prove  it,  or  to  prove  any- 
thing about  it  It  is  trae  by  general  consent.  It  is  true  by 
self-evident  light.  It  is  true  as  the  first  suggestion  and  as 
the  last  analysis  of  all  religious  thought,  as  the  prime  ele« 
ment  of  all  spiritual  religion,  from  an  infant's  prayer  to  a 
philosopher's  pantheism.  It  is  a  doctrine,  too,  from  which 
we  cannot  be  won  away  or  be  driven  off;  which  is  never 
contradicted  by  the  science  of  nature  or  the  science  of  mind ; 
which  every  inquirer  in  every  branch  of  knowledge  recog- 
nizes ;  and  which  all  the  experiences  of  human  life  are 
prompt  and  unanimous  to  verify.  It  is  a  doctrine,  more- 
over, always  ready  for  use,  —  in  a  court  of  justice,  in  a  sick- 
chamber,  not  less  than  in  an  argument  of  theology.  That 
which  is  simplest  is  always  most  practical,  most  available. 
Every  process  gains  in  value  just  as  it  does  the  largest  work 
with  the  least  complication.  And  I  affirm,  that  there  is  no 
practical  work  of  religion,  —  no  speculative  work  even, 
which  is  to  have  any  positive  issue,  —  which  is  not  better 
done  with  the  doctrine  of  God's  single  personal  unity,  than 
with  any  variation  of  that  doctrine.  This  single  shaft  will 
bear  a  more  steady  and  manageable  motion  than  wheels 
within  wheels,  flying  crosswise  and  eccentric 

This  is  an  unquestionable  advantage  of  the  Unitarian 
faith.  But  the  next  which  we  mention  is  quite  as  real  and 
great.  We  are  strong  in  our  recognition  of  the  divine  ele- 
ment in  man^  of  the  worth  of  human  nature.  Enthusiasm 
may  make  us  carry  the  doctrine  too  far,  and  claim  for  hu- 
man nature  more  than  a  fair  observation  of  the  facts  of  life 
will  warrant ;  but  we  have  at  any  rate  in  the  doctrine  the 
dynamic  energy  of  religion,  the  power  which  works  its 
changes  and  achieves  its  triumphs.  Whether  man  is  be- 
lieved to  be  by  nature  evil  or  good,  it  is  a  conviction  of  his 


THE   UNITABIAN   DEKOMIKATION.  165 

capacity  for  goodness  which  mast  prompt  every  effort  to 
save  him.     Work  for  human  regeneration  starts  from  the 
thought  that  man  is  justly  and  by  right  an  heir  of  heaven ; 
that  saved  men  are  called  to  themselves,  and  made  what 
God  intended  they  should  be.     The  foundation  and  impulse 
of  the  missionary  movement  is  not  the  theory  that  man  is 
wholly  depraved,  lost,  incapable  of  any  good,  but  the  assur- 
ance that  he  has  in  his  soul  a  residue  of  good,  a  latent  holi- 
ness which  the  €k>spel  influence  can  call  out     Not  medita- 
tion upon  the  wickedness  of  men,  upon  their  deeds  and 
words  of  selfishness  and  apostasy,  upon  those  multiplied 
signs  which  seem  to  prove  a  native  and  desperate  guilt, —  not 
meditation  upon  these,  but  meditation  upon  the  glory  of  this 
undying  soul,  cramped  in  its  sensual  fetters,  hindered  by  its 
base  surroundings,  held  away  from  its  proper  home  by  these 
mean  &scinations,  —  meditation  upon  the  salvation  which 
belongs  to  every  soul  of  man, — makes  the  Christian  evan- 
gelist   No  man  was  ever  sent  to  do  an  apostolic  work, 
whether  to  the  poor  in  cities,  or  to  heathen  in  far  lands,  on 
the  ground  of  the  native  worthlessness  of  these  ruined  souls. 
Whether  expressed  or  not,  the  Apostie's  instructions  are  to 
^i  appeal  to,  enlarge,  and  set  in  action  the  real  good  in 
every  one  of  the  depraved  souls  which  he  is  called  to  deal 
with.    When  charity  rises  above  the  mark  of  mere  alms- 
giving, when  the  preaching  of  refo^^m  takes  any  glow  or 
earnestness,  when  there  is  devotion  of  money  or  life  to  the 
Welfare  of  men,  there  is  the  postulate  of  their  heirship  of  the 
iingdom  of  Grod  and  the  graces  of  the  heavenly  life.   With- 
out this,  reform  can  have  no  vitality.     The  good  side  of 
iuman  nature  is  always  the  side  which  reform  seizes.    It 
may  profess  that  its  labor  is  only  for  supernatural  grace, 
which  brings  utter  change.     Yet  we  see  that  men  are  the 
aaditors  of  this  preaching  and  prayer,  and  if  Grod  be  ad- 


166  THE   UiaXARIAN  DENOMINATIOIT. 

dressed,  it  is  God  in  them  and  not  God  out  of  them,  —  a  H0I7 
Spirit  within  their  hearts,  waiting  there  to  save  them,  not  a 
Holy  Spirit  afar  off.  Gregory  sent  his  messengers  to  Britain, 
to  restore  to  Grod  that  beautiful  race  who  seemed  so  well 
worth  saving,  so  naturally  God's  children.  Xavier  wrote, 
from  the  Indies,  of  the  love  of  Grod  which  he  saw  in  the  hearts 
of  pagan  idc^aters.  Every  work  for  man  attempted  wiU  be 
more  zealous  and  effective  in  proportion  as  it  goes  accom- 
panied by  confidence  in  man.  Faith  in  Gk)d,  staying  alone, 
brings  nothing  but  quietism,  cloistral  life,  hermit  life,  and 
hardens  at  last  into  the  fatalism  of  the  Stoic  It  needs  faith 
in  man  to  give  it  energy,  to  set  it  in  motion,  to  make  it  a 
ministry  and  a  blessing.  For  efficiency  it  is  better  to  make 
too  much  rather  than  too  little  of  the  worth  of  human  nature, 
to  overvalue  than  to  undervalue  men.  We  have  this  advan- 
tage in  our  theory  of  human  virtue,  that,  if  it  be  nnjust,  it 
does  more  and  not  less  than  justice ;  that  it  gives  men  some- 
thing to  strive  up  to,  and  not  to  look  down  upon,  shows  a 
ladder  by  which  they  may  mount,  and  not  a  pillory  by  which 
they  are  fastened  motionless  and  helpless ;  that  it  sets  before 
men,  too,  what  all  would  fain  have  them  to  be,  and  what  no 
Christian  would  wish  to  have  untrue,  the  desire,  if  not  the 
faith,  of  every  man  who  loves  his  fellow-men. 

A  third  advantage  of  our  Unitarian  faith  is  the  compre- 
hensiveness of  its  Christology.  We  bring  the  whole  story 
of  Christ  into  use,  the  whole  of  his  life,  rejecting  no  part, 
subordinating  no  part.  If,  as  some  say,  we  lessen  the  dig- 
nity of  Christ  by  denying  his  Deity,  we  gain  enough  to 
balance  that  loss  in  considering  the  whole  of  his  humanity. 
We  are  not  compelled  by  the  exigencies  of  our  system  to 
slight  any  part  of  his  wonderful  course,  or  separate  any 
portion  of  it  as  containing  the  full  value  of  redemption. 
The  earliest  miracles  are  as  much  part  of  the  Sayioor^s 


THE   UNITARIAN  DEKOHIKATION.  167 

irork  as  the  latest ;  the  breaking  of  bread  with  the  five  thou- 
sand, as  much  as  the  breaking  of  Christ's  body  on  the  fatal 
tree ;  the  walk  in  the  cornfield,  as  much  as  the  agony  in  the 
garden';  the  precepts  delivered  by  the  Galilean  lake,  as  much 
as  the  parting  counsels  of  that  upper  room.  We  make  no 
division  of  the  divine  and  human  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  carry- 
ing on  his  spiritual  growth  through  the  life  of  a  man  to  the 
death  of  a  god.  The  divine  and  human  are  joined  at  the 
beginning,  and  go  blended  on  to  their  perfect  end.  We 
show  how  both  elements  are  visible  through  the  whole  story, 
God  speaking  in  those  first  words  of  conflict  with  tempta- 
tion, man  suffering  in  those  last  words  of  remembered  piety, 
— divine  wisdom  in  the  order  of  the  beatitudes,  human  care 
in  the  gift  to  his  friend  of  a  mother  by  her  dying  son,  —  the 
highest  inspiration  and  the  most  tender  brotherly  love,  the 
first  feeding  the  last,  yet  manifesting  the  last  through  all  its 
gracious  fiow^  —  like  Siloa's  brook  from  Siloa's  fountain. 
Oar  doctrine  of  Christ  omits  no  smallest  circumstance  of  his 
life.  Every  scene,  every  incident,  every  injunction,  every 
warning,  —  everything  which  can  help  to  illustrate  his  char- 
acter, to  prove  his  purpose^  to  bring  him  near  to  our  hearts 
^d  oar  thoughts,  to  make  his  action  a  clear  example  of  duty, 
■^  everything  in  his  precepts,  his  trials,  and  his  sacrifices, 
which  can  rebuke  our  worldliness,  supply  our  meditation, 
Jind  quicken  our  hope,  —  everything  which  shows  us  beauty 
and  purity  and  holiness  in  the  Saviour,  the  temper  of  heaven 
and  the  way  to  heaven,  —  is  part  of  his  redeeming  work. 

I  count  this  a  great  advantage,  that  we  are  able  to  get 

from  the  story  of  Christ  himself  a  full  understanding  of  his 

mission,  of  his  relation  to  man  and  his  relation  to  God,  and 

are  not  obliged  to  seek  this  from  any  other  source,  whether 

it  be  the  creeds  of  the  Church,  or  the  letters  of  Apostles. 

We  are  not  compelled  to  ask  of  St  Augustine  or  St.  Paul 


168  THB  UNrrAJUAN  DXSrOHINATIO^. 

what  Grod  meant  in  sending  his  Son  into  the  world,  or  to 
take  second  inspirations  to  explain  a  first  inspiration.  We 
can  find  enough  in  the  text  of  Christ's  own  history  to  make 
him  the  Saviour  of  any  man  and  of  all  men,  without  the 
hypothesis  of  a  scheme  which  only  much  reasomng  can 
reconcile  to  instincts  of  justice  and  love.  As  in  our  doctrine 
of  God's  unity,  we  have  no  nuilhematical  difi^ulty  to  meet^ 
80  in  our  Christology,  we  hare  no  moral  difficulty  to  contend 
with.  The  Unitarian  theory  of  Atonement  sets  no  stum- 
bling-block of  vicarious  sacrifice  in  the  way  of  the  believer. 
Presenting  Christ  as  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
God,  yet  as  the  shepherd  and  bishop  of  the  souls  of  men,  it 
encumbers  the  way  of  its  argument  about  Christ's  cross  by 
no  moral  dilemma.  The  possible  doubt  which  might  belong 
to  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross,  if  this  were  viewed  alone,  is 
solved  by  what  we  see  (^  Grod's  grace  in  the  life  and  teach- 
ing of  Christ  What  we  have  learned  in  reading  th^  slory 
of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  and  did  tmch  wwks 
as  only  one  could  do  who  had  God  with  him,  aoquunts  us 
beforehand  with  the  meaning  of  the  crucifixioo.  The. key 
to  redemption  is  given  us  not  by  Anselm,  bent  in  his  cell 
over  the  manuscripts  of  the  Latin  Fathers,  but  by  the  walks 
and  wonders  on  the  hills  of  Galilee. 

A  fourth  advantage  of  Unitarianism  is  its  broad  theozy 
of  religious  culture  and  religious  influence.  It  does  not 
limit  the  means  of  spiritual  growth  to  any  narrow  system 
or  circle,  or  insist  that  all  the  gifl  of  heaven  to  men  is  stored 
in  one  reservoir,  and  must  run  in  one  chaimeL  It  sees 
God  not  only  in  the  Church,  but  in  the  world ;  God's  wiurk 
in  more  forms  than  in  those  specially  called  religious.  Its 
view  of  providence,  of  history,  of  inspiration,  of  educaticm, 
is  a  broad  view;  and  in  this  more  than  in  anything  eke 
consists  [its  right  to  be  called  «  Liberal  Christianity."    We 


tHE  T7KITABIAN  DENOMIKATIOK.  169 

are  not  all  tnie,  indeed,  to  this  liberal  theory,  and  fireqaenUj 
allow  oarselves  to  be  betrayed  into  that  narrowness  which 
would  enclose  in  the  lines  of  the  visible  Church  or  churches 
the  whole  oi  the  Christian  religion, —  would  shut  up  all 
piety  in  the  Sabbath,  or  in  meetings  for  prayer,  or  in  vol- 
ames  of  sermons,  or  in  lives  of  saints.  We  mourn,  if  num- 
bers do  not  join  the  church,  that  the  Lord  has  left  his 
people ;  or,  if  ministers  come  few  and  tardy  to  their  work, 
that  the  Gospel  is  dying  out.  But  the  theory  is  not  to  be 
inferred  from  private  complaint  or  individual  defection. 
The  spirit  of  our  system  emancipates  religion  from  its 
bondage  to  fonns  of  any  kind,  and  assigns  to  these  an  office, 
but  not  a  control,,  in  the-  growth  of  the  Christian  character. 
We  hold  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not  man  for 
the  Sabbath ;  that  the  prayers  of  the  sanctuary  are  not  the 
substance  or  the  substitute  for  all  other  prayers,  but  the 
proper  complement  of  a  pervading  spirituality  of  life ;  that 
all  who  have  and  show  the  spirit  of  Christ  belong  to  his 
Church,  whether  they  have  enrolled  themselves  or  not  with 
his  chosen;  that  a  judge  on  the  bench,  a  statesman  in  the 
senate-house,  a  merchant  in  the  exchange,  a  soldier,  or  a 
sailor,  or  an  engineer,  or  a  nurse  in  the  hospital,  may  be  as 
truly  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  as  many  who  are  honored 
with  that  name ;  that  Grod's  people  are  not  a  class  to  be 
reckoned  by  number  and  known  by  a  badge,  but  are  all 
who  love'the  Lord  and  who  serve  him,  even  unconsciously. 
We  find  divine  teaching  and  divine  grace  in  what  men  do,  as 
well  as  what  they  suffer,  in  their  prosperity  as  in  their  ad- 
ver8ity,in  their  joy  as  in  their  catastrophes,  —  in  bounteous 
harvest  not  less  than  in  wide  bankruptcy,  in  the  building  of 
cities  not  less  than  in  the  wreck  of  steam-ships.  The  spirit 
of  our  fiiith  would  not  separate  the  world  from  Christ,  or 
keep  up  that  antagonism  between  heaven  and  earth  which 

VOL.  V.  NO.  II.  15 


170  THE  UKITASIAN  DENOMINATIOK. 

oaght  only  to  exist  between  heaven  and  helL  It  would 
rather  bring  that  domain  which  we  know,  the  domain  of 
earth,  to  be  that  kingdom  of  Christ  for  which  his  followers 
strive,  and  set  God's  glorj  where  we  know  that  God  rules. 
We  ai'e  fortunate  in  not  having  to  print  our  gazettes  of 
piety  on  a  double  sheet,  one  side  secular,  one  side  sacred, 
which  invite  us  to  tear  them  asunder.  All  things  secular, 
on  the  contrary,  shall  serve  with  us  a  sacred  purpose. 
Schools  and  colleges,  factories,  banks,  and  railroads,  books 
and  pictures,  music  and  festival,  all  are  ranged  in  that  edu- 
cation by  which  the  soul  of  man  is  fitted  for  the  world  of 
God.  Some  may  decry  this  catholic  standard  of  culture, 
may  say  that  it  degrades  Christianity,  soiling  it  with  such 
vulgar  society,  making  it  vile  because  so  common,  and  beat- 
ing it  out  to  gossamer  tinsel  because  spread  over  so  wide  a 
surface  of  life.  The  reproach  would  be  just,  were  this  com- 
prehensiveness of  Christian  theory  a  covering  of  the  world's 
sins,  instead  of  a  gathering  of  the  world's  forces ;  if  the  Gkxs- 
pel  were  made  to  serve  and  not  to  rule ;  if  Christ  should 
consort  with  publicans  and  sinners  from  love  of  their  ways. 
But  when  the  Grospel  holds  the  world  and  all  its  forces  trib- 
utary, it  is  stronger  than  when  it  discards  this  army,  these 
battalions,  and  goes  on  alone  with  a  selected  staff  of  creed  and 
ritual,  sermon  and  catechism,  of  religion  trained,  equipped, 
and  uniformed. 

And  this  leads  us  to  mention  one  more  advantage  of  our 
system  of  faith,  that  it  lays  such  stress  upon  good  works, 
exalts  practical  religion  so  much  above  theoretic  religion, 
and  makes  the  principles  of  active  virtue  the  groundwork 
and  the  essence  of  salvation.  It  is  in  harmony  here  with 
all  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour,  with  all  the  clear  teaching 
of  Paul,  with  the  Epistles  of  James  and  John,  with  the 
elder  Scripture  of  Prophets,  Psalmists,  and  the  Proverbs. 


THE   UinTABIAK  DBKOMINATION.  171 

Sometimes  it  is  objected  to  our  faith,  that  it  is  mere  morality. 
The  charge  is  a  praise,  if  we  consider  that  morality,  as  we 
maintain  it,  means  that  charitj  which  the  Apostle  com- 
mended as  the  chief  of  graces.  It  is  blame,  only  when 
morality  is  taken  to  mean  formal  and  stinted  legality,  decent 
and  compulsory  virtue,  a  low  prescribed  measure  of  good 
work,  and  not  an  abounding  and  boundless  love  for  men. 
But  when  virtue  means  Christian  righteousness,  when  to  be 
good  is  to  be  Christ-like,  then  we  may  count  it  all  honor 
that  we  preach  righteousness  as  the  principal  thing.  And 
whatever  men  say  against  practical  righteousness  as  the 
ground  of  salvation,  there  is  no  evidence  of  religion  which 
they  so  readOy  acknowledge  and  so  universally  yield  to. 
A  good  man,  in  any  sect,  gets  the  final  approval  of  reasona- 
ble men  in  all  sects.  The  sober  thought  of  the  most  rigid 
excepts  from  anathema  any  heretic  who  has  proved  himself, 
by  his  uprightness,  his  honesty,  his  benevolence,  his  true 
word,  and  his  generous  deed,  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ. 
Every  calendar  has  many  honorary  saints  in  the  good  men 
outside  of  its  communion.  Every  church  has  a  private 
door  through  which  it  admits  such  into  its  society.  Nay, 
such  is  the  real  homage  paid  to  virtue,  that  signal  right- 
eousness in  one  or  two  kinds  hides  a  multitude  of  sins. 
The  £ulings  of  a  good  man  are  excused,  while  the  failings 
of  a  zealous  believer  are  reckoned  in  depreciating  his  piety. 
In  insisting,  therefore,  upon  the  superiority  of  goodness,  upon 
character,  upon  works,  we  have  the  sympathy  of  the  world 
with  us,  —  we  declare  what  the  instinct  and  the  wisdom  of 
all  the  Church  indorse. 

To  this  doctrine  of  good  works,  as  the  highest  religious 
need,  the  spirit  of  our  free  institutions  tends.  There  can 
be  in  the  last  analysis  but  two  theories  of  religious  worth. 
Either  reli^n  helps  men  to  get  a  heaven,  which  they  can 


172  XHB  UKITABIAK  DSNOMIKATIOK. 

never  get  here,  or  it  shows  how  to  live  here  and  what  to  do ; 
either  it  is  a  .passport  to  the  other  world,  or  it  is  a  chart  of 
actual  life.    But  does  not  every  recognition  of  human  right 
and  human  freedom  ennohle  the  life  that  now  is,  so  that 
its  reform  and  its  virtue  shall  seem  worthy  of  all  labor, 
whether  of  men  or  angels?    Does  not  freedom  suppose 
virtue,  as  that  essential  without  which  there  is  no  security 
or  hope?    Under  a  despotic  rule,  the  doctrine  of  good 
works  is  superfluous,  since  there  can  be  no  large  or  general 
virtue,  and  all  that  is  needed  is  conformity  and  obedience. 
But  here  the  very  theory  of  our  social  existence  justifles 
the  preaching  of  righteousness  as  the  principal  thing.    The 
lack  of  this  righteousness  is  the  burden  of  those  who  de- 
spond about  the  future,  and  who  are  wearied  by  this  tale  of 
crime  and  shame,  this  fraud,  recklessness,  aad  &lsehood, 
these  defences  of  iniquity  and   inroads  of  insolence,  this 
growth  of  giant  sins,  which  lifts  terror  hi^uer  ever  and 
darker  before  our  way.    This  is  what  the  secular  pulpit 
preaches,  the  decent  press,  the  lecture-room,  teachers  with 
their  classes,    cahn  essayists  who  philosophize  about  ten- 
dencies and  duties,  all  enjoin.    In  maintaining  Uiat  good 
works  are  best,  we  are  assisted  by  the  sagacity  of  oar  proph- 
ets and  the  prayers  of  our  patriots.    They  bid  us  go  on 
in  every  cause  which  has  as  its  end  to  make  men  better; 
better  in  business,  better  in  society,  better  at  home,  better 
fathers,  brothers,  citizens,  fellows  in  the  callings  of  earth  as 
in  the  offices  of  devotion.    The  frown  of  sectarianism  is 
contemptible  compared  with  the  wide  sympathy  which  cheers 
any  advocate  of  better  morals  and  more  righteous  life,  who 
gives  himself  to  the  work  of  temperance,  of  domestic  edu- 
cation, of  slave  emancipation,  or  to  any  work  which  aims  to 
make  men  better  in  the  life  which  they  are  leadings    llie 
consenting  voices  of  all  wise  and  good  men  here  and  now, 


THE  UNITABIAH  DEKOMIHATIOK.  178 

and  from  the  long  past,  give  God-speed  to-day  to  the 
preacher  of  Christian  righteousness,  wherever  he  may  be, 
in  whatever  sphere  he  may  work,  and  honor  him  above  the 
most  cunning  workman  in  creeds,  or  the  most  adroit  relig- 
ious conjurer,  who  can  beguile  by  his  pleadings  the  minds 
of  men  to  rest. 

These,  then,  make  the  advantage  of  the  Unitarian  faith,  — 
the  simplicity  of  its  leading  idea,  the  stress  which  it  lays 
upon  the  native  worth  of  man,  the  comprehensiveness  of 
its  doctrine  concerning  Christ,  its  broad  theory  of  religious 
culture  and  religious  influence,  and  its  high  estimate  of 
practical  righteousness.  We  pass  next  to  observe  more 
briefly  the  danger,  or  rather  the  error,  of  our  religious  body, 
the  mistake  to  which  we  are  liable,  and  which  we  ought  to 
avoid.    This  may  be  described  in  a  single  word  as  fear ; 

m 

fear  of  what  others  say  of  us,  and  fear  sometimes  to  say 
what  we  know  ought  to  be  said ;  fear  of  free  inquiry,  and  of 
fair  investigation ;  fear  of  extravagance  in  studies,  in  preach- 
ing, and  in  the  practical  application  of  Christian  princi- 
ples. There  are  four  principal  manifestations  of  this  fear. 
There  is  the  apologetic  tone  we  are  very  apt  to  take, 
asking  to  be  excused  for  holding  truth  which  we  cannot  help 
holding,  pleading  for  it  as  if  it  needed  favor,  praying  in  its 
behalf  to  the  more  powerfiil  creeds  of  the  Church.  We  ask 
forbearance  with  our  heresy.  We  labor,  as  the  most  im- 
portant thing,  to  set  ourselves  right  with  dominant  opinions, 
to  find  points  of  agreement,  to  show  that  we  are  not  very 
far  firom  substantial  orthodoxy,  and  that  our  variations  are 
but  slight  and  venial.  Now  this  apologizing  for  truth  is 
not  only  unmanly,  but  it  is  very  unprofitable,  —  a  waste  of 
time  and  effort.  We  shall  never  make  foes  think  better  of 
our  faith,  by  trying  to  explain  it  away,  to  soften  down  its 
harsh  offence  to  ancient  prejudice,  or  to  round  off  its  angles 

15* 


174  XRB  UVITABUK  DENOMINATION. 

and  comers.  We  shall  not  deceive  by  that  amiable  timidity. 
The  voice  may  be  the  voice  of  Jacob,  but  the  hands  win 
be  the  hands  of  £sau.  No  fiedth  can  have  respectability,  of 
which  those  who  hold  it  are,  or  appear  to  be,  in  any  wise 
doubtful  or  ashamed.  Let  us  ask  no  indulgence  for  holding 
what  we  believe  to  be  truth,  and  for  insisting  that  it  shall 
have  the  same  fair  play  as  all  other  truth.  This  is  not  an 
age  when  any  opinion,  scientific  or  religious,  needs  ask  per- 
mission to  live.  In  our  equal  religious  democracy,  there  is 
no  call  for  any  servile  cringing  before  the  faith  of  prescrip- 
tion or  of  numbers.  We  are  not  now  in  such  straits  as  Jus- 
tin and  Tertullian  in  the  Pagan  Empire,  or  as  the  Socini  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  aliens  fr^wi  two  households  of  faith. 
And  the  reason  which  we  ought  to  render  for  our  fidth  need 
have  in  it  no  tone  of  palliation  or  shrinking.  There  is  not 
one  of  the  leading  truths  of  our  system  that  needs  to  be 
excused,  to  be  toned  down  to  a  minor  key,  <»:  to  be  defi^ded 
in  any  but  a  confident  and  jubilant  strain, — not  one  that  will 
gain  anything  by  abrasion  or  by  dilution,  though  the  pro- 
cess be  hidden  in  brilliant  and  seductive  rhetoric,  by  which 
some  are  bewildered  first  and  then  soothed  into  pitying  tol- 
erance. There  is  no  more  reason  why  we  should  apologize 
for  our  religious  opinions,  than  for  our  opini(ms  in  politiGS,  or 
art,  or  literature. 

A  second  mistake,  akin  to  this,  is  the  mistake  of  sus^ 
ptcian,  of  fear  that  there  will  be  no  real  audience  for  our 
truth,  that  the  world  around  us  will  not  give  us  all  the 
attention  and  heed  which  we  deserve, — a  fear  of  the  power 
of  bigotry.  We  see  bigotry  very  often  by  watching  for  it 
We  exaggerate  opposition  by  making  too  much  of  trifles. 
And  it  is  a  great  deal  more  comfortable,  and  a  great  deal 
nearer  the  truth  too,  to  believe  that  the  world  will  welcome 
what  we  have  to  say,  than  to  imagine  that  all  men  are  in 


THE  UmTABIAN  jymOUDSAJlOJX.  175 

tague  to  hinder  our  word.  There  is  very  little  sense  now 
1  talking  about  persecution.  Those  onlj  are  persecated 
rho  provoke  annoyance  either  by  over-sensitiveness,  or  by 
ilaiming  for  themselves  what  they  refuse  to  others,  who  are 
iither  too  timid  or  too  aggressive.  If  we  deal  fairly  with 
)tliers,  the  chances  are  that  in  the  main  they  will  deal  fairly 
with  US.  Frankness  and  confidence  help  truth  much  more 
ihaa  precautions  in  its  behalf.  And  as  we  would  enter  into 
no  intrigue  to  sustain  it,  it  is  just  to  suppose  that  others 
eater  into  no  intrigue  to  suppress  it.  We  cannot  compel 
men  to  read  what  we  write,  or  to  hear  what  we  say.  But 
let  us  not  believe,  therefore,  that  there  is  any  wide  or  fixed 
antipathy  to  truth,  come  from  what  quarter  it  may.  Our 
appeal  is  not  to  members  of  other  churches  chiefiy,  y  ho  are 
satisfied  with  their  own  fiuth  and  want  no  better,  but  to  men 
in  the  world,  men  who  are  unsettled,  whose  minds  are  in- 
quiring. To  such  the  truth  which  we  bring,  if  we  make  it 
clear  and  strong,  and  prove  its  value,  will  be  as  acceptable 
^m  us  as  from  any  other.  We  may  not  get  the  credit  of 
it>  The  men  who  take  it  and  rejoice  in  it  may  shun  us 
^ho  bring  it,  and  may  echo  the  cry  of  heresy  which  goes 
before  our  name.  But  they  are  converts,  notwithstanding, 
uid  they  receive  the  truth,  which  is  of  more  consequence 
^han  the  fame  of  its  advocates,  whoever  they  are. 

A  third  mistake  which  we  are  apt  to  make  is  that 
peace  is  better  than  truth,  that  principles  may  be  com- 
promised for  the  sake  of  harmony,  and  that  all  is  well  if  we 
'an  only  avoid  dispute  and  live  in  apparent  concord  with 
^e  men  of  other  communions.  Controversy  is  the  bane 
if  religion,  we  are  frequently  admonished,  and,  at.  whatever 
>ost,  this  eternal  wrangling  about  doctrines  and  about  meth- 
4  ought  to  be  stopped.  Union,  not  argument,  is  what  we  ^ 
rant;  quiet,  and  not  agitation.     Doubtless  passages  can  be 


176  THE  URlTABIAir  DKlTOMmATIOy. 

• 

taken  firom  the  words  of  Christ  which  yindicate  this  ex* 
ceeding  love  of  peace,  but  more  passages,  more  commanding 
passages,  to  bid  men  prefer  the  tmth.    To  bear  witness  to 
the  tmth,  not  to  bring  peace,  did  Jesus  come  to  earth* 
And  those  who  seek  for  peace  at  the  expense  of  truth  will 
never  get  what  thej  seek.    They  get  only  a  truce,  a  post- 
ponement in  which  there  are  more  anxieties  than  in  the 
excitement  of  strife.      Foemen  are  always  more  at  ease, 
more  self-possessed,  when  they  are  in  free  conflict,  than 
when  they  are  lying  on  their  arms,  waiting  uncertainly 
for  the  outbreak.    Any  peace  founded  on  compromise  is 
insecure,  and  brings  with  it  spedal  distrusts.    It  is  a  vine- 
yard on  a  volcano,  yielding  only  an  intoxicating  draught  of 
delusi^  pleasure,  —  only  the  tears  of  Christ,  not  his  strength 
and  his  trust.    And  it  is  the  last  position  which  a  snudl  rie- 
ligious  sect  ought  to  take.    A  great  religious  body,  which 
is  strong  in  numbers,  in  history,  in  influence,  can  perhaps 
afford  to  allow  something  for  the  sake  of  peace,  afford  to 
spare  of  its  surplus  that  the  erring  may  come  back  to  its 
side;  — its  concessions  will  leave  no  fatal  damage, — few 
loans  will  not  reduce  its  well-filled  treasury.     But  when 
a  small  sect  begins  to  compromise  its  principles,  to  make 
other  concessions  than  those  of  defeat,  then  bankruptcy  will 
follow,  and  its  whole  possession  will  be  absorbed  into  the 
larger  system  on  which  it  has  become  unwisely  dependent 
There  is  no  danger  to  our  body  more  serious  than  this.    It 
is  the  more  serious,  that  this  call  for  peace  first,  seems  to 
wear  the  mildness  and  beauty  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  to  be 
the  sacred  consequent  of  the  precept  of  submission  uid  the 
precept  of  brotherly  love. 

One  other  form  of  fear  is  the  fear  of  injury  to  our 
cause  from  what  radicals  in  our  own  body  may  do  or  say, 
radicals  in  scholarship  or  in  reform,  critics  or  preachers, 


THE  UNrCABIAN  BSNOKIlfATIOV.  177 

cool  reasooers  or  ardent  &natics.  S<»ne  think  it  necessary 
to  disavow  all  sympathy  with  these,  to  prophesy  sad  issues 
from  such  extravagance,  to  shift  off  all  the  troubles  of  our 
body  upon  this  convenient  cause,  and  to  make  radicalism 
the  scape-goat  for  aU  our  sins  and  short-comings.  But  is 
it  fair  now  to  be  afraid  of  that  freedom  of  speech  and  of 
investigation  which  has  made  us  what  we  are?  Must 
scholarship  give  way  to  surmises,  and  the  study  be  foreclosed 
by  the  dictum  of  consequoices  ?  Is  our  cause  so  weak  that 
it  can  be  injured  by  any  stretch,  however  for,  of  its  first 
principle  ?  Shall  we  doubt  of  our  solvency,  because,  while 
the  many  foUow  the  steady  track  of  profit  between 
familiar  lands,  some  dare  the  tropic  hurricanes  of  reform, 
and  others  venture  into  the  frozen  eirde  of  rationalism? 
Do  not  these  very  ventures  widen  our  knowledge,  enlarge 
our  sphere  of  final  profit,  open  new  ways  of  real  influence ; 
<»r,  if  they  bring  back  no  profit,  at  least  tell  us  in  what  di* 
rections  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained,  where  the  return  is 
not  equal  to  the  trouble  and  the  cost  of  inquiry?  It  could 
be  easily  demonstrated  that  the  radicalism  which  they  said 
was  to  do  us  so  much  harm,  has  done  really  more  good  than 
harm,  and  has  given  to  us  a  nobler  place  of  influence  than 
we  could  possibly  have  gained  without  it. 

We  turn  from  this  mention  of  the  mistakes  which  we  are 
apt  as  a  body  to  make,  to  note,  in  closing,  some  reasons  for 
encouragement.  And,  flrst,  there  is  the  large  influence  and 
expression  which  our  faith  has  in  literature  and  social  life. 
The  small  range  of  our  direct  sectarian  effort  is  more  than 
compensated  by  the  hearing  which  we  get,  by  the  invita- 
tion which  is  given,  in  that  public  domain  in  which  all  sects 
are  sharers  together.  Not  only  the  names  of  those  who 
write  the  books  which  everybody  reads,  but  the  views  and 
tendency  of  these  most  popular  books,  testify  that  the  spirit 


178  THE  UHITARIAK  DBNOMINATION. 

of  our  fiEuth  .is  acceptable  to  men.  It  is  not  mere  vain- 
glorj,  bnt  the  simple  statement  of  an  evident  &ct,  when 
we  say  that  no  religioas  body,  whatever  its  wealth,  its  num- 
bers, or  its  reserved  force,  exerdses  in  the  refining  and 
civilizing  inflaences  of  the  world  more  power  than  ours. 
History,  written  firom  the  stand-point  of  our  faith,  is  the 
most  reliable  history.  Philosophy,  whether  of  mind  or 
morals,  which  conquers  sway,  is  philosophy  as  we  write  it. 
Our  maxims  are  taken  as  the  basis  of  civil  constitutions  and 
as  the  formulas  of  practical  virtue.  The  new  poetry  is  all 
in  harmony  with  a  liberal  theology,  and  no  lyrist  or  hymnist 
now  revives  in  his  song  the  dogma  of  Watts  or  Milton.  The 
tone  of  every  form  of  art  approves  the  idea  of  God's  unity, 
man's  nobleness,  and  Christ  saving  men  by  his  life  and 
his  word.  The  sermons  which  they  will  not  come  to  hear 
in  our  churches  are  applauded  in  the  lecture-room,  and 
fall  like  a  refreshment  upon  ears  tired  of  the  technicalities 
of  salvation  by  creed  and  scheme.  Nay,  the  humanity 
which  goes  before  our  theology  prepares  a  place  for  it  in 
regions  and  retreats  where  the  surrounding  civilization  lends 
it  no  aid.  I  have  heard  the  opinions  of  Channing  named 
with  enthusiasm  by  a  Presbyterian  in  the  glens  of  Northern 
Ireland ;  by  a  Lutheran  in  the  wild  mountain  gorges  of  the 
Swiss  Grisons,  who  had  learned  the  English  tongue  that  he 
might  read  the  works  of  this  author  more  fitly ;  and  by  a 
Roman  priest,  within  the  very  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
very  precincts  of  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  who  after- 
wards proved,  as,  on  the  field  of  Balaclava,  with  death  and 
destruction  all  around  him,  cannon  roaring  and  missiles  fly- 
ing, he  calmly  gave  to  the  dying  soldiers  the  last  Christian 
benediction,  how  well  he  had  learned  the  lessons  of  his 
heretic  teacher.  If  the  whole  of  our  direct  sectarian  work 
were  at  this  moment  to  be  set  aside,  the  residue  o{  our  in* 
fluence  would  be  greater  than  the  loss. 


THB   XmiTAXUJSf  DSHOMmATION.  179 

Another  encouragement  is  found  in  the  concliuions  to 
which  the  hest  thinkers  in  all  sects  are  coming,  in  the 
tendencies  of  independent  theology  in  all  the  churches. 
No  ETangelical  college  can  he  sure  of  its  professors,  and 
even  the  subscription  oath  will  not  restrain  them  from  de- 
daring  their  liheral  sympathies  and  conyiction.  The  foun- 
tain of  mediasval  piety,  oonservatiye  Oxford,  now  sends  forth 
streams  from  which  all  free  Christendom  may  gladly  drink. 
The  liberal  movement  is  manifold.  Everywhere  the  guar- 
dians of  the  sects  are  arraigning  for  heresy  the  trusted  men 
of  their  own  name.  The  ablest  Orthodox  journals  are  de- 
clared to  be  virtual  agents  of  Unitarianism.  Yet  the  cry 
does  not  frighten  them  into  recantatiOD.  Gmfessing  a  par- 
tial defection  from  the  ancient  ^th,  they  have  gone  on 
farther  than  they  confess  or  than  they  know.  Many  are 
the  preachers  now  in  the  Evangelical  sects,  most  famous 
too,  to  whom  a  Unitarian  can  habitually  listen,  with  no 
shock  to  his  most  cherished  convictions,  who  press  his  once 
peculiar  views  with  an  earnestness  and  unction  and  an  effect 
which  bear  witness  that  these  views  are  mighty  in  the  sal- 
vation of  souls,  and  that  all  evangelical  power  is  not  fixed 
in  the  machinery  of  the  old  Christian  scheme. 

A  third  encouragement  of  Unitarianism  is  in  its  realized 
and  admitted  power  to  produce  the  work  of  Grodliness, 
to  make  Christian  lives  and  Christian  death.  We  have 
the  numerous  stories,  which  none  can  gainsay,  of  men  and 
women  who  were  formed  by  this  faith  to  virtue  and  to  holi- 
ness.   These  even  the  stigma  of  our  name  cannot  take 

ft 

away  from  us.  We  have  lives  as  finished,  as  noble  in  all 
the  elements  of  Christian  heroism,  as  any  to  be  found  in  the 
records  of  the  Eeformed  or  the  Roman  Churches,  names 
worthy  to  be  joined  to  those  of  Baxter  and  Melancthon,  of 
Xavier  and  Borromeo.    We  are  able  to  show  instances  of 


180  THE  UKITABLLN  DENOHIKATIOX. 

every  type  of  Christian  philanthropy  and  Christian  piety, 
^falling  short  only  of  literal  martyrdom.  All  that  any  sect 
has  tried  to  realize  in  the  lives  of  its  memhers,  we  have  re- 
alized in  the  lives  of  some  of  our  brethren.  This  is  not  our 
assertion  merely :  others  acknowledge  it.  And  when  any 
complain  of  onr  system,  that  it  is  inadequate  to  the  highest 
style  of  Christian  life,  we  have  the  answer  at  hand  in  the 
treasures  of  our  biography.  Why  need  I  mention  names, 
either  of  the  dead  or  the  living,  which  we  shall  all  be  quick 
to  remember? 

Once  more,  there  is  encouragement  in  the  prophetic 
spirit  of  our  faith.  We  have  not,  like  other  sects,  any  hal- 
cyon past  to  remember  and  look  back  upon,  any  vanished 
golden  age,  when  all  that  we  hope  for  now  was  folly  mani- 
fest We  can  find  no  historic  time,  when  liberal  religion  had 
any  better  position  or  any  better  chance  than  it  has  now,T— 
when  it  had  a  clearer  statement  or  a  purer  witness.  No 
ancient  doctors  have  fixed  the  finality  of  our  belief.  No 
creed  ever  written  is  for  us  a  model  formula.  The  Oinrch 
has  nowhere  for  us  said  its  best  word,  or  done  its  best  work. 
That  work  and  that  word  are  future,  not  past,  —  not  of  the 
time  of  Constantine,  or  Aquinas,  or  Calvin,  or  the  Puri- 
tans. Our  millennium  is  yet  to  come,  to  be  restored  fi*om 
no  pattern,  but  the  ideal  Church  projected  in  the  Gospel 
record.  There  is  encouragement  in  the  thought  that  the 
liberal  theory  of  religion  has  never  been  proved  on  any 
large  scale  to  be  a  failure,  has  never  yet  been  strong  enough 
to  fall  away  from  its  strength  or  to  make  its  confessors  re- 
gret  the  former  days,  has  not  waned  from  any  imperial  sway, 
wearing  now  only  the  sad  colors  of  reminiscence, — that 
it  has  no  retrograde  step  to  take  before  it  can  go  safely  on. 
All  our  theology  is  expectant  and  preparatory.  It  k  but 
a  foundation  laid  for  a  nobler  building.     It  is  but  matezial 


THE   UKITARIAN  DENOMINATION.  181 

gathered  for  some  finer  organization.  In  the  very  looseness 
of  our  sectarian  fellowship,  there  is  this  prophecy  of  a  new 
Church  different  from  anj  that  now  is.  We  are  inquiring, 
investigating,  speculating  yet,  casting  about  to  find  new 
methods,  ever  scrutinizing  earnestly  the  signs  of  the  times, 
continually  taking  auguries,  and  discussing  probabilities. 
We  have  not  lost  any  former  rest,  yet  we  have  not  found 
our  rest.  It  may  not  be  true,  as  Count  Gasparin  has  it, 
that  Unitarians  are  the  chief  priests  of  demonology  and 
necromancy,  the  most  busy  servants  of  the  Prince  of  the  Air, 
given  above  all  others  to  dreams  md  visions  and  vagaries, 
which  they  take  as  a  substitute  for  rejected  Grospel  prom- 
ises ;  but  it  is  true  that  the  spirit  of  our  faith  does  bid  us 
look  as  &r  as  we  can  into  the  future,  does  point  us  forward, 
and  guide  our  eyes  to  the  surprise  of  a  new  light.  It  is 
this  intrinsic  hopefulness  of  our  system  that  gives  it  that 
elasticity  at  which  others  marvel,  —  that  compels  us  to  go  on 
against  such  obstacles  and  disappointments,  —  to  go  on,  even 
when  so  many  hearts  are  faint,  and  so  many  timid  brethren 
misread  and  misreport  the  signs  of  the  time,  —  that  prevents 
the  courage  of  our  body  from  failing,  though  our  best  men 
seem  to  fall  away,  and  separate  churches  dwindle  and  die, 
though  our  meagre  increase  is  a  shame  more  than  a  boast, 
and  there  are  so  many  single  prophecies  of  evil  omen. 
Whatever  this  man  or  that  man  may  say,  this  man,  cynic  in 
his  sad  conservatism,  or  that  man,  weary  in  his  fruitless  re- 
form, —  whatever  the  latent  scepticism  which  dares  not  in- 
vestigate, or  the  tired  philanthropy  which  has  tried  and  has 
failed,  may  predict  concerning  our  body, — our  theology  itself, 
the  work  which  we  have  done  and  are  doing,  predicts  a  victo- 
ry greater  than  we  have  yet  achieved,  and  a  fortune  beyond 
any  that  we  have  gained.  So  in  the  transit  of  the  maritime 
Alps,  the  fears  of  many  passengers,  some  of  whom  see  dan- 

YOL.  V.  NO.  II.  16 


182  THE   UNITARIAN   DSNOIONATION. 

ger  in  the  sharp  descents,  some  in  the  long,  dark  tnnnels, 
some  in  the  impending  mountain  which  frowns  against  them 
and  dares  them  to  pass,  and  some  only  in  the  alarmed  feat- 
ures of  the  rest,  shall  not  hinder  the  speeding  train  from  its 
destined  waj,  —  not  all  these  fears  will  turn  it  from  its 
course.  And  those  who  staj  bj  it  are  safer  than  those  who 
cast  themselves  off.  The  citj  which  they  will  find  when 
the  danger  is  passed  will  not  be  an  old  city  by  the  sea,  a 
decayed  Genoa,  with  its  empty  palaces  peopled  by  traditions 
of  grandeur,  its  shadow  of  strength  thrown  long  on  silent, 
receding  waves,  but  a  new  city  of  a  renovated  realm,  a 
Piedmont  capital,  where  freedom  finds  its  late  and  glorious 
home,  where  the  exiles  of  many  lands  compare  their  wisdom 
and  unite  their  skill  to  raise  a  prosperous  and  Christian 
state. 

These  hasty  observations,  lacking  that  argument  and  that 
illustration  which  should  give  them  value,  I  leave  now  to 
your  review  and  your  indulgence.  The  best  part  of  them, 
doubtless,  has  been  anticipated  by  the  teachings  of  that  free 
and  devoted  ministry  which  this  Church  has  so  long  been 
privileged  to  retain.  May  I  not  congratulate  the  Conven- 
tion that  it  meets  in  a  city  where  the  most  bold,  open,  and 
uncompromising  expression  of  sympathy  with  extreme  and 
novel  opinions,  and  the  most  catholic  tolerance  of  aU  difler- 
ence,  has  won  men  to  our  religious  body,  instead  of  turning 
them  aside, — in  a  city  where  there  is  a  practical  answer  to  the 
charge  that  moral  courage,  free  speech,  and  that  fidelity  to 
principle  which  the  cautious  call  fanatical,  are  a  peril  to  our 
cause  ?  Let  our  coming  here  to  deliberate  be  a  testimony 
that  we  approve  the  spirit  which  has  sustained  and  built  this 
Church.  On  this  ground,  which  the  Church  of  our  faith  has 
helped  to  make  to  this  great  State  the  centre  of  charity  and 
freedom,  let  us  renew  our  pledges  to  every  cause  of  philan- 


POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMBKT.  183 

tbropy,  our  welocmie  to  every  promise  of  progress.  While 
vre  criticise  ourselves,  let  us  not  lose  faith  in  our  calling. 
While  we  find  defects,  let  us  not  see  anywhere  despair.  If 
there  are  losses  to  be  counted,  let  us  believe  and  rejoice  that 
they  are  in  no  wise  losses  of  any  truth.  The  time  has  not 
come  for  us  to  gather  up  fragments.  We  have  to  create, 
more  than  to  collect  Let  the  sign  of  our  feebleness  be  the 
cause  of  our  joy,  when  we  see  that  the  feebleness  is  of  im- 
mature youth,  and  not  of  decrepit  tottering.  Let  wayward 
and  rash  experiments  be  hopeful,  springing  as  they  do  from 
the  excess  of  youthful  confidence,  and  not  from  the  petulant 
shame  of  age,  which  would  cover  its  decay  by  pretext  of 
youthful  zeal.  Our  faith  has  a  bright  promise,  if  we  will 
let  it  run  free  and  in  the  largest  air.  Every  random  blow 
that  it  strikes  braces  its  strength  for  wiser  effort.  Every 
hazardous  excursion,  of  truth  or  of  works,  which  it  makes, 
educates  it  the  more  in  the  laws  and  the  secrets  of  the  king- 
dom of  God. 


POLITICS    OF    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT. 

[About  twelve  years  ago  there  appeared  a  remarkable  article  in  an 
English  Review  (Tait's)  under  the  title  we  have  here  qaoted.  We  take 
the  liberty  to  reprint  the  larger  part  of  it,  as  we  believe  it  will  be  new 
to  nearly  all  our  readers,  who  will  find,  even  if  dissenting  from  here 
and  there  an  expression,  that  it  is  written  with  uncommon  life  and 
vigor,  and  that  it  breathes  a  bold  and  free  spirit.  Much  that  goes  un- 
der the  name  of  "  political  preaching  "  undoubtedly  deserves  reprehen- 
sion. The  pulpit  has  no  right  to  turn  aside  from  the  great  themes  for 
which  it  exists,  to  deal  in  the  personalities  or  discuss  the  measures  of 
a  partisan  strife.    Bat,  on  the  other  hand,  every  fresh  interpretation  of 


184  POLITICS   OF   THE   NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Christianity  expresses  itself  in  social  and  political  results.  There  is  a 
style  of  treating  these  issues  peculiar  to  the  New  Testament  A  preach- 
er who  is  under  an  interdict  on  this  subject  has  his  just  official  freedom 
assailed.  Certainly  he  is  to  exercise  it  in  the  spirit  of  candor  and  con- 
ciliation, under  the  lead  of  good  temper  and  good  sense.  If  he  finds 
attempts  made  to  choke  his  profoundest  convictions  by  the  cry  of  po- 
litical preachings  he  will  only  meet  an  experience  like  that  of  many  in 
every  generation  since  the  voice  of  the  first  Christian  preacher  was 
heard.  The  distinctive  Unitarian  stand-point  of  the  writer  of  the  fol- 
lowing article  will  at  once  be  recognized ;  nor  is  this  a  solitary  instance 
where  the  most  able  writers  of  the  age  set  forth  our  thoughts  from  the 
pulpits  of  influential  Reviews.] 

In  the  tendencj  which  the  signs  of  the  times  variously 
indicate,  to  a  nearer  connection  of  religion  with  politics,  there 
is  nothing  that  need  surprise  us.    The  connection  is  rooted 
in  the  nature  of  things.     The  alliance  of  religion  and  poli- 
tics is  one  of  indisputahle  legitimacy.    Every  religion,  every 
mode  of  religious  belief  and  opinion,  is  more  or  less  directly 
related  to  the  social  moralities;  and  laws  and  institutions 
are  the  organs  through  which  these  express  themselves, — 
the  body  of  which  they  are  the  soul.     Every  theory  of  Di- 
vine Providence  and  government  draws  after  it,  rather  in- 
cludes in  it,  a  corresponding  theory  of  human  destination ; 
therefore,  of  human  duties;  therefore,   of  human  rights; 
therefore,  of  the  civil  and  social  arrangements  under  which 
the  destination  may  best  be  attained,  and  the  rights  and 
duties  most  worthily  realized.     All  which  especially  holds 
good  of  such  a  religion  as  the  Christian,  —  so  practical,  so 
human,  so  rich  and  full  in  its  every-day  moralities.     As 
Episcopacy,  Presbyterianism,  Puseyism,  Puritanism,  Cathol- 
icism, Quakerism,  Benthamism,  have,  each  of  them,  their 
politics,  —  have,  each  of  them,  a  natural  affinity  to  certain 
political  ideas  and  maxims,  —  so  we  propose  to  inquire  what 
are  the  politics  of  that  which  was  before  them  all,  and  will 
survive  them  all,  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament. 


POLITICS    OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  185 

By  this  we  do  not  mean  to  ask,  What  form  of  government, 
in  Church  or  State,  does  the  New  Testament  authoritatively 
declare  to  be  the  best  ?  For  we  are  not  aware  that  the  New 
Testament  declares  anything  about  the  matter.  In  the  obvi- 
vious,  superficial  sense  of  the  word,  the  New  Testament  has 
no  politics.  The  Founder  of  Christianity  and  his  first  fol- 
lowers did  not  interfere  with  forms  and  modes  of  civil'  gov- 
ernment, otherwise  than  to  teach  (in  opposition  to  the  popu- 
lar Judaical  fanaticism,  which  refused  tribute  to  Caesar,  on 
the  ground  that  legitimacy  and  divine  right  were  limited  to 
the  house  of  David)  that  all  governments,  which  answer  the 
common  purposes  of  social  union,  are  equally  legitimate  and 
of  divine  right,  —  for  "  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
Grod."  They  contented  themselves  with  announcing  broad 
and  everlasting  moral  truths,  destined,  in  the  progress  of 
time,  gradually  to  regenerate  society,  and  remould  govern- 
ments and  polities  into  their  own  likeness.  Neither  shall 
we  now  inquire.  What  do  New  Testament  texts  say  as  to 
the  proper  objects  and  limits  (if  any)  of  civil  allegiance  ? 
Whether  the  Quaker  interpretation  of  "  Resist  not  evil," 
and  the  Tory  interpretation  of  "Be  subject  to  the  higher 
powers,"  be  sound  or  unsound,  are  points  which  we  leave  to 
the  solution  of  theological  exegesis.  With  any  question  of 
controverted  texts  and  dogmas  we  have  here  no  concern. 
Nor  do  we  undertake  the  task  of  constructing  from  New 
Testament  texts  a  systematic  confession  of  political  faith,  or 
code  of  political  morals ;  for  we  are  not  aware  that  the  New 
Testament  affords  data  for  anything  of  the  sort.  It  would, 
in  truth,  be  wonderful  if  it  did.  All  the  circumstances  of 
our  civilization  differ  so  widely  from  those  of  the  age  and 
generation  to  which  the  Gospel  was  first  promulgated,  that 
the  letter  of  its  records  cannot  be  expected  to  throw  much 
direct  light  on  the  details  of  our  political  rights  and  duties. 

IS* 


186  POLITICS   OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

With  reference,  for  example,  to  those  two  prominent  and 
all-influencing  elements  of  our  present  social  state,  —  repre- 
sentative institutions  and  the  press,  —  with  all  the  manifold 
rights  and  duties  connected  with  and  resulting  from  them, 
the  New  Testament  yields  us,  of  course,  no  specific  text- 
ual guidance.     Our  electoral  and  politico-literary  morality 
we  are  left  to  work  out  for  ourselves,  in  the  light  of  those 
hroad  principles  of  social  duty  which  constitute  the  essence 
of  the  Christian  ethics.    The  New  Testament  is  so  far  from 
teaching  politics  systematically,  that  it  leaves  even  the  ques- 
tion of  private  property  an  open  question, — the  earlier  pre- 
cedents of  the  Church  seeming  to  favor  community  of  goods, 
its  subsequent  history  indicating  the  legitimacy,  or  at  least 
permissibleness,  of  individual  appropriation.    Leaving,  then, 
all  questions  of  texts  and  textual  controversy,  as  belonging 
to  the  theologian  rather  than  the  political  moralist,  we  shall 
simply  inquire,  What  great  general  truths  in  the  philoso- 
phy of  social  morals  —  what  ideas  and  principles  having  a 
political  bearing  —  are  consecrated  by  the  general  tone  and 
tenor  of  the  volume  which  Christians  revere  as  their  rule  of 
faith  and  practice  ?    What  moral  lessons  may  the  politician 
learn  from  that  vast  fact  in  the  economy  of  Providence,  that 
stupendous  spiritual  revolution,  whose  opening  scenes  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament  disclose  ? 

"  The  Christian  religion,'*  says  Novalis,  in  words  which 
frequent  quotation  has  rendered  familiar  to  us,  "is  the  root 
of  all  democracy,  —  the  highest  fact  in  the  Rights  of  Man.*' 
We  believe  that  this  utterance  of  high-flown  "  German 
mysticism,"  as  some  worthy  people  call  it,  is  a  piece  of  as 
sound  and  sober  truth  as  ever  was  spoken.  The  Christian 
religion,  taken  from  the  most  general  point  of  view  from  which 
we  can  regard  it,  —  as  a  great  moral  and  spiritual  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  —  consecrates  and  sanctifies  those  prin- 


POIITICS  OF  l^HE  NEW  I^ESTAlCEKT.  187 

ciples  from  which  democracj  most  naturallj  springs,  on 
which  it  most  securely  rests,  bj  which  human  rights  are 
most  effectuallj  vindicated,  and  which  the  tyrants  and  op- 
pressors of  mankind  most  heartily  detest. 

Thus,  Christianity  consecrates  the  principle  of  appeaUng 
directly  to  the  common  peopiU  on  the  very  highest  and  deep- 
est questions  of  human  interest.  The  Gospel  treats  the 
popular  intellect  with  respect  and  friendliness.  There  is 
nothing  esoteric  in  its  doctrines  or  spirit  ^  What  ye  hear 
in  the  ear,  that  preach  ye  upon  the  house-tops,"  is  the  man- 
date of  its  beneficent  Founder.  It  recognizes  no  aristoc- 
racy of  caste  or  class,  of  birth  or  office,  -*-  no  aristocracy  of 
intellect  even :  it  ^  honors  all  men,"  by  addressing  itself  to 
faculties  and  feelings  which  all  men  in  common  possess. 
That  "the  poor  have  the  Grospel  preached  unto  them"  is 
adduced  by  Jesus  as  one  of  the  most  distinctive  signs  of  his 
divine  mission:  and  it  is  this,  more  than  anything  else, 
which  constitutes  the  Gk)spel  a  great  fact  —  the  greatest  of 
facts  —  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  This 
preaching  of  a  gospel  to  the  poor  assumes  that  the  poor 
have  faculties  for  the  appreciation  of  the  profoundest  of 
moral  truths;  that  there  is  nothing  too  good  to  be  given 
to  them ;  that  the  enlightening  of  their  understandings,  the 
awakening  of  their  feelings,  the  guiding  of  their  aspirations 
to  spiritual  beauty,  truth,  and  good,  is  a  work  worthy  of  the 
highest  order  of  intelligence.  The  Christian  religion  is  the 
loftiest  wisdom  descending,  without  any  parade  of  conde- 
scension, to  commune  with  the  deepest  ignorance,  —  lifting 
up  its  voice,  not  in  the  schools  of  learning  and  science,  but 
in  the  highways  of  human  intercourse,  in  the  very  streets 
and  market-places.  Here,  we  take  it,  is  the  Education 
question  settled,  once  for  all,  on  the  highest  authority.  The 
old  Tory  anti-education  clamor  about  the  danger  of  raising 


188  POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

poor  people's  miods  above  their  station  in  life,  is  rebuked 
by  the  example  of  the  inspired  Teacher  of  the  world.  For 
the  sort  of  knowledge  on  which  this  dangerous  tendency  is 
most  obviously  chargeable,  the  knowledge  which  most  power- 
fully raises  men's  minds  above  the  level  of  the  vulgar  work- 
ing world,  is  given  freely  and  without  reserve  to  alL  Surely, 
if  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  theology  are  not  too  stimu- 
lating a  nutriment  for  common  minds,  neither  is  diemistry, 
nor  geol<^,  nor  poetry,  nor  mathematics.  The  whole  circle 
of  the  arts  and  sciences  is,  we  apprehend,  less  calculated  to 
raise  poor  people's  minds  above  the  station  (^life  in  which 
it  has  pleased  Providence  to  place  them,  than  is  the  dis- 
closure of  mysteries,  into  which,  as  we  are  told,  "  the  angels 
desire  to  look." 

The  Gospel  is,  then,  an  appeal  to  the  many,  the  millions, 
the  common  people;  assumes  a  capacity  in  the  common 
people  receptive  of  the  deepest  and  weightiest  of  moral 
truths.  It  is  more  than  this.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the  many 
against  the  few,  —  to  the  people  against  their  rulers.  Such, 
taken  historically,  is  the  most  obvious  external  aspect  of  the 
public  preaching  of  Jesus.  It  was  a  stirring-up  of  the  soul 
of  the  Hebrew  commonalty  into  protest  and  spiritual  revolt 
against  a  vicious  ecclesiastical  government.  It  was  an  en- 
deavor to  create  in  Palestine  an  enlightened  public  opinion, 
a  pure  and  earnest  public  morality,  adverse  to  the  influence 
of  the  constituted  authorities,  and  to  the  permanence  of  the 
existing  order  of  things.  That  it  was  infinitely  more  than 
this,  —  that  this  politico-moral  feature  of  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  was  by  no  means  the  whole,  nor  even  the  chief  part, 
of  their  significance,  —  we  have,  of  course,  no  intention  to 
deny.  Still,  it  was  this :  to  say  that  Christianity  does  pre- 
sent this  aspect,  among  others,  is  simply  to  state  an  histori- 
cal fact.    Jesus  of  Nazareth  taught  the  Jewish  people,  with 


POLITICS   OF   THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  189 

the  utmost  freedom  and  plainness,  a  morality  sabversive  of 
tlie  influence  of  their  rulers ;  taught  them  to  distrust  those 
rulers  as  "  blind,"  and  to  scorn  them  as  "  hjrpocrites."  Here, 
then,  we  have  another  great  political  truth,  resting  on  the 
highest  authority,  and  exemplified  in  the  most  illustrious  of 
precedents.  The  Gospel  consecrates  the  principle  of  moral- 
force  agitation.  It  recognizes  the  right  and  duty  of  insur- 
rection, —  the  insurrection,  that  is,  of  the  heart  and  under- 
standing against  hypocrisy  and  ^dsehood,  though  the  hy- 
.pocrisy  and  falsehood  sit  in  the  very  seat  of  Moses,  and  are 
environed  with  the  prestige  of  antiquity  and  legitimacy. 
It  keeps  no  terms,  except  those  of  truth,  with  consecrated 
turpitude,  and  legitimate,  old-established  iniquity.  It  brings 
human  authorities,  the  most  reverend  and  time-honored,  — 
human  institutions,  the  'most  securely  hedged  round  by  tra- 
dition, popular  veneration,  and  the  use  and  wont  of  ages,  — 
to  the  test  of  eternal  and  divine  moralities,  proclaiming  that 
every  tree  not  of  God's  planting  shaU  be  rooted  up.  It 
speaks  the  plainest  truths  about  public  men  in  the  plainest 
way.  "Hypocrites,"  "extortioners,"  "serpents,"  "vipers," 
—  such  is  the  dialect  in  which  the  New  Testament  speaks  of 
corrupt  and  unprincipled  rulers.  The  spirit  of  the  book  is 
that  of  antagonism  to  existing  ideas  and  established  author- 
ities. The  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel  drove  constituted 
authorities  mad  with  rage;  scared  a  guilty  tetrarch,  and 
made  a  Koman  governor  tremble;  and  its  written  page 
denounces  the  oppressions  and  frauds  of  "  rich  men  "  of  the 
landlord  class,  in  a  tone  which  now-a-days  would  be  thought 
to  savor  of  the  League,  or  even  the  Charter.  What,  pre- 
cisely, may  be  the  meaning  of  "  Let  every  soul  be  subject 
to  the  higher  powers,"  we  do  not  here  undertake  to  say ; 
but  the  meaning  of  this  and  similar  texts  clearly  is  not  that 
they  to  whom  Providence  has  given  the  power  of  instruct- 


190  l^OJslTlQS  QF  TBM  NSW  7ESXAMEKT. 

ing  the  minds  wad  stirring  the  hearts  of  their  fellow-men, 
are  to  shrink  from  denouncing  public  immoralities,  and 
agitating  against  public  wrongs.  Never  was  a  greater  mis- 
take than  that  which  is  made  when  despots  and  aristocracies 
encourage  poor  people  to  read  the  Bible,  .in  the  hope  of 
quieting  them  down  under  oppression.  For  any  such  pur- 
pose, the  Bible  is  about  the  unfittest  book  in  all  literature. 
Whenever  the  Bible  is  read  with  the  understanding  and  the 
hearty  it  will  strengthen  men's  sense  of  right;  and  quicken 
their  sensibilities  to  wrong,  —  sanctifjr  what  tjrants  call 
^  sedttidn,^  by  ihe  example  of  a  long  line  of  agitators  of  the 
prophet  imd  apostle  class,  and  consecrate^  as  religion,  a 
sturdy,  defiant  opposition  to  all  manner  of  Pharaohs,  Ahabs, 
Herods,  Pilates,  and  chief  priests. 

The  poUtics  of  the  New  Testament  are  anti-kierarckicdL 
The  whole  book  is  an  emphatic  proclamation  of  religious 
equality;  not  that  mere  equality  of  sect  with  sect  which 
seems  to  be  at  present  our  current  interpretation!  of  this 
"  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,"  but  the  equality  of  man 
with  man.  The  Christian  religion  knows  nothing  of  human 
priesthoods,  —  other  than  the  priesthood  that  is  common  to 
all  good  men  and  true,  who  render  to  their  Maker  the  sacri- 
fice of  worthy  deeds  springing  out  of  honest  hearts.  Not 
to  a  select  and  episcopally-ordained  few,  but  to  ^  strangers 
scattered  abroad,"  does  the  Gospel  address  the  h(morable 
title  of  a  "  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices." 
Christianity  broke  down  the  old  priestly  monopoly,  —  Jew- 
ish and  heathen,  —  and  made  every  man  "  king  and  priest 
unto  God  "  on  his  own  account  It  neither  recognizes  nor 
constitutes  any  sacerdotid  caste,  any  spiritual  aristocracy, 
(Episcopalian  or  Presbyterian,)  any  order  of  men  stand- 
ing in  ex-officio  relations  to  Deity.  It  makes  the  relation 
of  man  to  Grod  individual  and  immediate.    The  Chri8tiamt7 


POLITICS   OF  THB  KBW  TESTAMENT.  191 

that  lifts  a  mitred  front  in  courts  and  parliaments  is  not  the 
Christianitj  of  Christ  Uppermost  rooms  at  feasts,  chief 
seats  in  synagogues,  and  all  the  other  great  and  small 
prizes  of  ecclesiastical  ambition, -^ including  the  ''Rabbi, 
Kabbi,''  (or,  as  we  phrase  it,  Very  Reverend,  Right  Reve- 
rend, Most  Reverend,)  —  are  discarded  and  disowned  by 
Him  whose  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world.  Marvellous  it  is 
how,  not  the  spirit  only,  but  the  very  letter  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, is  set  at  naught  by  our  modem  priesthoods.  Christ 
said,  in  that  grandly  awful  cando  cui  poptdum  which  closed 
the  series  of  his  public  teachings,  ^  Call  no  man  your  Father 
upon  the  earth":  yet  "Father,"  << Right  Reverend  Father," 
**  Right  Reverend  Father  in  God,"  is  the  style  and  title  of 
modem  Christian  Episcopacy.  Why  do  not  they,  for  very 
shame's  sake,  score  out  the  text  at  once,  as  an  heretical  in- 
terpolation ? 

The  Gk)spel  is  a  consecration  of  the  principle  and  spirit 
of  Protestantimi  /  of  the  principle  and  spirit  of  free  inquiry 
in  matters  of  religious  belief,  of  individual  earnestness  in 
moral  conduct,  of  progressive  reform  in  social  institutions. 
Christianity  makes  no  account  of  legitimacy,  antiquity,  or 
majorities.  It  is  a  protest  for  the  practical  spiritual  needs 
of  "  the  hour  that  now  is,"  against  the  tyranny  of  traditions 
inherited  from  the  past.  Such  a  thing  as  the  fastening  of 
the  creed  of  one  generation  on  the  &ith  of  all  succeeding 
ones,  in  secula  seculorum,  —  hedging  round  pulpits  and  uni- 
versity chairs  with  subscriptions  to  dead  men's  articles  of 
belief,  (though  the  articles  should  happen  to  be  all  trae,)  — 
is  a  proceeding  utterly  opposed  to  its  free  and  onward 
spirit  Christianity  is  a  protest  for  the  practical  utilities 
of  human  nature  and  life,  against  the  mechanical,  ceremo- 
nial righteousness  that  exalts  the  means  above  the  end, 
makes  man  the  creature  and  slave  of  institutions,  instead 


192  POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

of  their  lord  and  master,  and  would  have  eTen  withered 
hands   and  sightless   eyes  remain  as   they   are,  until  the 
Sabbath  of  Moses  has  had  its  due.     How  noble,  and  yet 
how  simple,  —  simple  as  moral  truth  ever  is,  —  is  that 
utterance  of  Christ's,  "  The  Sabbath  is  made  for  man,  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath."    This  has  been  in  the  world  these 
eighteen  hundred  years;  but  we  are  not  come  up  witli  it 
yet.    If  this  sentence  happened  to  be,  not  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  in  some  Parliamentary  speech  of  Mr.  Roebuck's, 
or  Mr.  Hume's,  many  religious  people  would  be  dreadfully 
shocked,  and  we  should  never  hear  the  last  of  the  '^  blas- 
phemy"  and  "  irreligion,"  the  daring  Antidiristianity,  of 
the  sentiment     The  Grospd  is  a  protest  for  spiritual  equal- 
ity and  brotherhood,  against  the  overbearing  assumptions 
and  tyrannous  impertinences  of  a  priestly  aristocracy, — a 
protest  for  individual  judgment,  against  sacerdotal  and  eccle- 
siastical authority.     It  is  a  true  Non-conformist's  GrospeL 
Ecclesiastics  may  talk  ever  so  learnedly  and  plausibly  about 
the  incapacity  of  the  unlettered  multitude  to  judge  for  them- 
selves of  the  high  questions  of  religion,  —  about  the  need 
of  adhesion  to  a  centre  of  spiritual  unity,  of  docile  submis- 
sion to  the  authority  of  a  regularly  constituted  and  legiti- 
mately ordained  clergy:  they  may  even   quote  texts  in 
support  of  their  claims,  which  the  unskilled  in  Hebrew  and 
Greek   cannot  exactly  explain.     But  the   broad  fact  re- 
mains,—  stubbornly  impervious  to  all  the  heaviest  artil- 
lery of  sacerdotal  logic,  —  that  the   Christian   Grospel  is 
(historically)  rooted  and  grounded  in  antagonism  to  au- 
thority; that  on  the  "authority"  principle  it  never  could 
have  got  standing-room  in  the  world ;  that  all  the  author- 
ities which  men  then   reverenced  —  the  authority  of  the 
Jewish  priesthood,  the  authority  of  the  heathen  priesthood, . 
the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate,  the  authority  oi  the 


POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  193 

philosophers  and  literati — were  confederated  to  crush  it. 
Non-conformity,  dissent,  free-inquiry,  individual  conviction, 
mental  independence,  are  for  ever  consecrated  by  the  reKg- 
ion  of  the  New  Testament,  as  the  breath  of  its  own  life,  the 
conditions  of  its  own  existence,  on  the  earth.  The  book 
is  a  direct  transfer  of  human  allegiance  in  things  spiritual, 
from  the  civil  and  ecclesiatical  powers  to  the  judgment  and 
conscience  of  the  individual.  With  the  New  Testament  in 
Lis  hands,  and  a  high,  honest  purpose  in  his  heart,  no  man 
need  ever  be  afraid  of  "  heretic/*  "  schismatic,"  "  sedition- 
monger,"  "babbler,"  "blasphemer,"  "pestilent  fellow,"  and 
other  such  missiles  of  the  vocabulary  of  insolence  dressed 
in  authority.  The  Grospel  itself  was  once  a  heresy,  a 
schism,  a  sedition,  and  a  blasphemy,  and  would  have  been 
crushed  in  the  cradle,  if  authority  and  hard  words  were 
arguments.  ^  The  Chrislian  religion  is  thus  the  "  highest 
fact"  in  the  philosophy  of  that  highest  of  human  rights, 
Liberty  of  Prophesying. 

The  Gospel  is  "the  root  of  all  democracy."  Not  that 
it  specifically  inculcates  the  overthrow  of  oligarchical  and 
despotic  governments,  and  the  establishment  of  republics 
in  their  room;  but  it  announces  principles,  it  breathes  a 
spirit,  the  universal  prevalence  of  tvhich  would  at  once 
make  oligarchy  and  despotism  moral  impossibilities.  By 
its  doctrine  of  human  equality  and  brotherhood,  it  ignores  all 
social  distinctions,  except  the  immutable  natural  distinctions 
between  wisdom  and  folly,  righteousness  and  iniquity.  It 
denounces  all  mammon- worship  and  title-worship.  Its  social 
spirit  is  that  of  a  republican  simplicity,  equality,  and  self- 
respect.  It  recognizes  no  aristocracy  but  that  of  personal 
goodness,  tested  by  social  usefulness :  "  He  that  is  greatest 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant."  It  is  a  very  levelling 
Gospel.    Its  early  triumphs  consisted,  as  the  Apostle  elo- 

VOL.  V.  NO.  II.  17 


194  POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

quentlj  boasts,  in  the  foolish,  and  weak,  and  base  thin^ 
of  the  world  confounding  the  wise,  and  mighty,  and  honore 
The  history  of  Christianity  is  that  of  a  revolution  which  b< 
gan  with  what  cabinet-ministers  and  bishops  call  ^'  the  dreg 
of  the  people,"  and  mounted  upward  and  upward  till  i 
scaled  and  captured  the  throne  of  the  Csesars.  The  raising 
of  valleys,  and  laying  low  of  hills,  was  the  burden  of  the 
prophetic  announcement  of  the  Gospel's  approach ;  and  the 
^  glory  to  Gkxl  in  the  highest,"  which  angels  announced  as 
its  final  aim,  can  only  be  realized  when  ^  peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  among  men"  shall  be  established  universally  od 
the  basis  of  political  justice. 

The  politics  of  the  New  Testament  are  in  direct  antagoDism 
to  the  old  heathen  politics.  These  sacrificed  the  individual 
to  the  state ;  treated  the  state  as  everything,  and  the  individ- 
ual (except  in  his  relations  to  the  state)  as  nothing.  Iq 
Christianity,  the  individual  is  everything ;  the  state,  other- 
wise than  as  an  aggregate  of  individuals,  nothing.  Na- 
tional wealth,  power,  greatness,  glory,  manufacturing  interest, 
commercial  interest,  agricultural  interest,  colonial  and  ship- 
ping interest,  splendor  and  dignity  of  the  crown,  glorious  con- 
stitution, and  the  like,  —  all  these  are  nothing,  in  the  politics 
of  Christianity,  except  as  representative  of,  or  conducive  to, 
the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  individual  men,  women, 
and  children :  all  are  worse  than  nothing,  if  the  happiness 
and  virtue  of  individuals  are  to  be  sacrificed  to  their  sup- 
port Not  as  a  mere  "  member  of  society,"  not  as  a  mere 
fractional  part  of  a  vast  and  multitudinous  whole  called 
"  community,"  does  Christianity  take  notice  of  the  individ- 
ual, but  as  an  immortal  child  of  God,  having  his  own  life 
to  live,  his  own  character  to  form,  his  own  individuality  to 
develop,  his  own  soul  to  save.  How  deep  this  doctrine  goes  1 
It  is  the  most  revolutionary  thing  we  have.     It  implies  the 


POLITICS   OP  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  195 

radical  falsity  and  wickedness  of  all  social  arrangements 
which  demand  the  sacrifice  of  individual  intellect,  morality, 
and  spiritual  health,  to  the  abstraction  called  Society.  Un- 
der the  Christian  charter  of  human  rights  and  code  of  hu- 
man duties,  man  —  every  man  —  has  a  destiny  of  his  own 
to  work  out,  a  nature  of  his  own  to  develop,  up  to  its  highest 
possibility  of  health  and  strength ;  and  whatever  obstructs 
him  in  this,  Christianity  explicitly  condemns.  **  Let  my 
people  go,  saith  the  Lord,  that  they  may  serve  Me,"  —  is 
the  plea  of  the  Hebrew  liberator  for  the  emancipation  of  his 
race ;  and  never  were  the  rights  of  man  advocated  on  a 
broader  ground.  The  words  are  Jewish,  but  the  spirit  is 
Christian.  Political  enfranchisement,  as  the  condition  pre- 
liminary of  a  true  and  entire  service  of  God ;  civil  rights, 
as  needful  to  intellectual  and  moral  health ;  social  justice, 
as  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  virtues  and  charities  best 
grow,  —  there  is  a  principle  here  wide  enough  to  cover  the 
whole  field  of  political  reform.  The  aim  of  Christianity  is 
the  perfecting  of  the  individual  in  whatsoever  things  are 
true,  honest,  just,  virtuous,  and  lovely;  and  whatever,  in 
social  custom  or  legislative  enactment,  hinders  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  aim,  is  unchristian  and  Antichristian. 

Here  is  the  condemnation  of  slavery :  and  of  some  other 
things  beside.  The  question,  "  Can  a  dependent  elector  be, 
in  mental  honesty  and  self-respect,  a  perfect  Christian  man?" 
contains  the  core  of  the  Ballot  controversy.  The  question, 
**  Can  a  clergyman,  with  his  bread,  and  his  children's  bread, 
contingent  on  his  unfaltering  profession  of  belief  in  a  par- 
ticular set  of  theological  opinions,  faithfully  discharge  the 
Christian  duty  of  proving  all  things  ?  "  is  decisive  as  to  the 
morality  of  enforced  subscription  to  creeds  and  articles.  The 
question,  "  Can  a  soldier,  whose  trade  is  homicide  by  word 
of  command,  whose  profession  is  the  abnegation  of  moral 


196  POLITICS   OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

responsibility  for  the  most  responsible  act  a  human  creatare 
can  commit,  be  a  living  example  of  the  Christian  Tirtues  of 
benevolence  and  justice?"  settles  the  Antichristianitj  of 
standing  armies.  The  question,  ^  Can  a  grossly  ignorant 
man  be,  at  all  points,  a  thorough  Christian  man  ? "  is  a 
short  argument  for  national  education.  And  the  question, 
^  Can  a  man,  woman,  or  child,  that  is  over-worked,  under- 
fed, ill-housed,  and  ill-dad,  enjoy  intellectual  and  moral 
health,  realize  the  spiritual  development  contemplated  by 
the  Christian  Gospel  ?"  brings  religion  into  the  whole  of  our 
social  economics.  The  right  of  the  individaal  to  the  means 
of  spiritual  life  and  growth,  to  leisure,  rest,  recreation,  phys- 
ical and  domestic  comfort,  as  the  conditions  of  his  soul's 
health,  —  if  this  be  not  instantly  decisive  of  the  question  of 
the  ten-hours  bill,  it  is  only  because  some  other  and  nearer 
questions  stand,  for  the  present,  between  us  and  that ;  and 
because  there  would  be  no  Christianity  in  legislating  to 
make  bad  worse.  But  there  the  question  is,  waiting  for  us, 
to  be  settled  when  those  other  things  shall  have  been  put 
out  of  the  way.  That  is  not  a  Christian  state  of  society, 
which,  for  some  millions  of  people,  renders  the  culture  of 
the  home  virtues  and  affections  little  better  than  a  physical 
impossibility.  The  taint  of  Antichristianity  is  <»i  all  social 
arrangements  that  hinder  or  abridge  the  spiritual  growth  of 
human  beings. 

•  .  •  a  • 

In  virtue  of  this  principle  of  the  sacredness  of  the  indi- 
vidualy  the  Christian  Gospel  is  a  vast  regenerative,  revolu- 
tionizing force,  permeating  the  whole  structure  of  society  and 
its  institutions.  We  are  learning  to  feel  that  even  the  crim- 
inal is  within  the  scope  of  its  operation.  The  "  vindictive  " 
theory  of  punishment  —  which  sacrifices  the  individual  to 
the  passions  of  the  community — is  now  pretty  well  ex- 


POLITICS    OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  197 

ploded ;  and  the  "  exemplary  "  theory  —  which  sacrifices 
the  individual  to  the  interests  of  the  community  —  is  less  ex- 
clusively insisted  on  than  it  was  :  we  modify  it  with  a  large 
admixture  of  the  "  reformatory  "  theory,  in  which  the  indi- 
vidual is  paramount.  The  feeling  gains  ground  in  society 
every  year,  and  from  time  to  time  expresses  itself  in  legis- 
lation, that,  whatever  rights  the  criminal  may  have  forfeited, 
he  cannot  forfeit  his  right  to  the  means  of  moral  improve- 
ment ;  and  that  any  punishment,  however  well  deserved  and 
exemplary,  is  essentially  defective  if  it  be  not  adapted  to 
promote  (otherwise  than  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts'  fashion) 
the  soul's  health  of  the  offender.  That  punishment  which 
dismisses  the  culprit  from  the  world  as  an  incurable,  —  cuts 
him  off  from  all  opportunity  and  possibility  of  restoration, 
with  the  miserable  mockery  of  a  judicial  prayer  that  "  the 
liord  may  have  mercy  on  his  soul,"  —  is  gradually  drop- 
ping into  desuetude :  and  society  seems  less  and  less  willing 
to  despair  of  the  moral  amendment  of  those  who  have  most 
deeply  sinned  against  it. 

.  •  •  *  • 

The  political  ideas  and  principles  of  the  New  Testament, 
like  all  other  great  moral  truths,  tend  ever  —  with  an  inhe- 
rent, resistless,  though  slowly  working  force  —  to  their  own 
realization.  It  says  nothing  against  this,  that  we  have  had 
Christianity  in  the  world  these  eighteen  hundred  years, 
without  having  yet  properly  learned  one  of  its  lessons.  We 
have  had  the  sun  and  moon  these  six  thousand  years,  day 
unto  day  uttering  speech,  and  night  unto  night  showing 
knowledge,  and  we  have  not  yet  learned  their  religion. 
The  Christian  Gospel  of  brotherhood  and  spiritual  equality, 
in  the  laborious  slowness  of  its  progress,  the  limitation  of 
its  influence,  and  the  extent  and  seeming  inveteracy  of  its 
corruptions,  only  shares  the  fate  of  other  moral  truths. 

17* 


198  POLITICS   OF  THE  NBW  TESTAMENT. 

Meanwhile,  it  furnishes  us  with  abundant  encouragement, 
under  the  tardj  and  imperfect  character  of  its  own  suc- 
cesses. The  symbols  in  which  its  Founder  pictured  its  fu- 
ture progress  are  indicative,  not  of  miraculous  metamorpho- 
sis, but  of  natural  growth,  — ^  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear, 
afler  that  the  full  com  in  the  ear  " :  nor  are  the  enemy  and 
his  tares  forgotten.  Truly,  ^  there  are  many  Antichrists," 
as  the  Apostle  says ;  and  their  power  is  great  as  their  natures 
are  various :  —  the  Antichrist  of  mammon,  the  Antichrist  of 
aristocracy  and  class-legislation,  the  Antichrist  of  spiritual 
tyranny,  the  Antichrist  of  Pharisaism  and  hypocrisy,  the 
Antichrist  of  the  ^  great  uncontrollable  principle/'  that  loves 
a  gainful  iniquity  better  than  a  losing  honesty.  But  the 
politics  of  the  New  Testament  —  the  politics  of  justice  and 
mercy,  of  spiritual  liberty  and  equality — are  stronger  than 
all  the  Antichrists  together.  The  Christian  Gospel  is,  at  this 
moment,  all  external  hinderances  and  internal  corruption 
notwithstanding,  the  mightiest  moral  force  we  have,  both  as 
a  conservator  and  destroyer.  There  are  no  signs  of  old  age 
upon  it.  It  can,  in  truth,  grow  old  only  when  the  world 
grows  old.  The  nations  of  the  European  family  received 
it  in  their  infancy ;  and,  in  the  life  of  nations,  as  of  the  indi- 
vidual, those  are  the  vital  and  enduring  characteristics  which 
are  impressed  during  the  age  of  early,  rapid  growth.  The 
religion  whose  author  loved,  under  the  title  of  Son  of  Man, 
to  identify  himself  with  universal  humanity ;  the  religion 
which  began  its  life  with  putting  down  polygamy,  gladiator- 
ship,  serfdom,  and  other  such  abominations ;  which,  in  our 
own  time,  has  reformed  our  penal  code,  stopped  our  slave- 
trade,  emancipated  our  slaves,  and  is  still  fighting  the  good 
fight  beyond  the  Atlantic,  showing  abundant  signs,  by  the 
way,  where  the  real  strength  lies ; — this  religion,  which,  de- 
spite of  all  the  corruptions  that  have  been  fastened  on  i^  and 


LYONS.  199 

all  the  crimes  that  have  been  perpetrated  in  its  name,  has 
ever  been  a  civilizing  influence  in  the  midst  of  barbarism, 
and  a  moralizing  influence  in  the  heart  of  an  effeminate  and 
artificial  civilization,  will  live  while  any  part  of  its  benign 
mission  remains  unaccomplished,  -—  will  live  till  it  has  exor- 
cised all  the  evil  spirits  that  haunt  and  vex  the  world.  The 
moral  ideas  that  constitute  the  life  of  Christianity  contain 
within  themselves  the  promise  and  programme  of  our  age 
to  come. 


LYONS. 

FOURTH  LETTER  FROM  REV.  VTILLL/LM  MOtJNTFORD. 

It  was  a  beautiful  morning  in  May  when  we  started  from 
Paris  for  Aix-les-Bains  in  Savoy.  Our  purpose  was  to  see 
the  country  and  the  people,  and  not  merely  the  few  note- 
worthy objects  to  which  the  guide-books  direct  the  traveller. 
No  doubt  in  this  manner  we  gained  an  impression  such  as 
is  not  to  be  got  by  traversing  the  country  at  the  rate  of 
three  or  four  hundred  miles  in  a  day.  But  yet  I  do  not 
think  that  even  an  impression  gained  while  travelling  more 
deliberately  is  probably  very  truthful.  For  highways  and 
inns  are  by  no  means  the  places  where  the  character  of  a 
people  is  to  be  l^st  learned. 

At  Fontainebleau  I  walked  about  the  town  before  break- 
fast, and  I  found  myself  in  the  market,  which  is  held  in  a 
large  square  planted  all  over  with  rows  of  trees.  Under 
the  shade  of  these  trees  sat  the  market-people  with  their 
baskets  of  eggs,  butter,  vegetables,  poultry,  and  snails, — 
live  snails  crawling  about  the  baskets,  with  their  shells  on 
their  backs.    After  leaving  this  pretty  umbrageous  market- 


200  LYONS. 

place,  I  saw  an  ancient  building  with  a  great  gateway.  With 
a  traveller's  license,  I  passed  through  it,  supposing  it  to  be 
some  public  edifice.     Then  I  stood  in  a  large  square,  look- 
ing about  me.     In  a  few  moments  I  was  asked  verj  civiUj, 
"  Do  you  belong  to  the  household  ?  ''     I  said  that  I  did  not. 
*'  Ah,  then  you  cannot  enter."     Then  I  asked  what  building 
it  was.     And  I  was  answered,  in  words  of  great  solemnity, 
<'  It  is  the  chateau."    I  remarked,  that  then  the  Emperor 
was  there.     '^  Yes ;  but  this  is  the  kitchen."    I  surveyed 
the  great  broad  square,  the  palace  as  I  thought;  and  I 
wished  to  know  which  particular  building  was  the  kitchen. 
And  I  was  answered  in  a  tone  almost  of  veneration,  <'  This 
is  the  kitchen.    It  is  all  kitchen,  all,  alL"     Certainly  it  was 
a  kitchen  worth  looking  at.     On  the  other  side  of  the  palace, 
leading  up  to  the  chief  entrance,  are  stairs,  called  from  their 
form  the  horseshoe  stairs,  which  also  are  worth  regarding, 
because  it  was  at  the  foot  of  them  that  Napoleon,  ocmqaered 
and  captive,  took  leave  of  his  old  guard  before  quitting 
France  for  Elba. 

On  emerging  from  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau,  we  soon 
came  to  the  first  vineyard  which  we  had  noticed  in  France* 
But  a  French  vineyard  is  a  sad  disappointment  to  rcHnantic 
expectations ;  for  there  are  in  it  no  shady  bowers,  no  luxa- 
riant  trailing  branches.  A  vineyard  in  France  is  a  field 
full  of  stumps  of  vines,  alongside  which  are  ^  fixed  sticks  of 
four  or  five  feet  in  height  The  vineyarfe  of  Burgandj) 
Champagne,  and  Bordeaux,  — the  traveller  expects  in  them, 
he  knows  not  what  of  luxuriance  and  beauty ;  but  he  finds 
that  truly,  at  their  best,  they  are  nothing  more  than  fields 
stuck  full  of  sticks  with  green  twigs  tied  to  them.  There  is 
not  a  vineyard  in  all  France  but  is  far  surpassed  in  beautjr 
by  a  field  of  Indian  com  in  August,  looking  so  luxuriant 
and  green  that  almost  it  infects  the  beholder  with  some 
new  feeling  of  vitality. 


LYOKS.  201 

On  approaching  Sens  the  traveller  perceives  from  a  dis- 
tance that  this  is  not  one  of  the  dull  towns  which  so  often 
deceive  his  interest  in  France.    The  outskirts  of  it  are  very 
prettj,  and  into  the  city  itself  the  entrance  is  through  a 
gateway  in  what  were  once  the  fortifications.     I  walked 
round  the  city  and  surveyed  the  walls,  which  are  now  no 
longer  of  military  use.     They  are  stiU  of  great  height  and 
thickness,  but  they  are  not  now  what  they  might  have  been 
in  the  days  of  bows  and  arrows,  and  even  perhaps  of  such 
cannon  as  the  Chevalier  Bayard  may  have  directed.     And 
so  here  where  was  once  the  base  (^  the  ramparts,  now  are 
avenues  of  trees,  where  the  citizens  promenade.    A  quaint 
old  pretty  town  is  this  ci<y  of  Sens,  somewhat  closely  built 
and  full  of  quaint,  ancient  buildings.    There  are  some  edi- 
fices which  are  now  appropriated  to  quite  vile  uses,  which 
have  evidently  been  in  former  times  churches  or  convents. 
While  walking  about  the  streets,  I  found  myself  suddenly, 
on  turning  a  comer,  close  under  the  towers  of  the  cathedraL 
I  was  examining  the  eighteen  chapels  which  border  the 
sides  of  the  cathedral,  and  I  was  thinking  the  while  of  St. 
Louis,  who  was  married  here,  and  of  Abelard,  who  was  here 
condemned  for  heresy  on  the  subject  of  the  Trinity,  at  the 
instance  of  St.  Bernard,  when  a  man  accosted  me,  and  asked 
me  if  I  would  wish  to  see  "  le  tresor."    I  followed  him, 
and  he  took  me  up  a  narrow  fight  of  stairs  leading  directly 
from  one  side  of  the  nave.     Then  he  opened  a  black  old 
oaken  door,  covered  with  wrought  iron,  and  I  was  in  the 
treasure-house,  and  in  the  presence  of  armories,  pictures, 
glass  cases,  and  busts.     And  amid  these  objects  my  guide 
was  another  person  than  when  he  first  addressed  me.     He 
was  the  custodian  of  the  treasures,  and  very  evidently  he 
was  a  sincere,  devout  believer  in  them.     He  was  a  man  of 
about  fifly  years  of  age,  and  was  dressed  in  black.     Sad, 


202  LYONS. 

earnest,  and  with  something  mysterious  in  his  manner,  he 
seemed  like  a  person  possessed  of  great  secrets,  which  no- 
body cares  for.  He  appeared  to  me  as  he  talked  like  one 
lonely,  desponding,  and  craving  sympathy.  He  opened  the 
doors  of  an  armory,  and  at  every  word  of  sympathy  which 
I  uttered,  he  drew  in  his  breath  aloud  and  looked  grateful. 
He  showed  what  he  said  was  given  to  the  church  by  Char- 
lemagne, a  silver  cross  of  twelve  or  fourteen  inches  in  length, 
enclosing  a  portion  of  the  wood  on  which  Jesus  was  cruci- 
fied. On  being  asked  whether  he  believed  that  reallj  that 
morsel  of  wood  was  part  of  the  cross  which  was  once  erected 
on  Calvary,  he  answered  with  great  discretion,  "  I  do  truly 
believe  that  it  was  given  to  the  cathedral  by  Charlemagne, 
as  being  part  of  the  cross  of  our  Lord ;  and  Charlemagne 
was  a  man  of  great  ability."  So  far  in  belief  I  went  with 
him ;  and  very  thankful  he  seemed  to  be  for  my  concur- 
rence. "  Ah,"  he  said,  leaning  towards  it,  "  it  is  most  pre- 
cious I  Precious  as  the  wood  of  the  cross,  —  precious  as 
the  gift  of  Charlemagne,  —  and  precious  also  for  its  intrinsic 
value.  For  look  at  these  sapphires  and  rubies,  how  large 
they  are  !  Ah,  see  it,  see  it !  For  where  else  will  you  see 
another  thing  like  it  ?  " 

Next  he  exhibited  a  robe  which  he  said  had  once  be- 
longed to  Thomas  a  Becket,  who  found  refuge  at  Sens, 
while  he  was  an  exile  from  England  in  consequence  of  his 
quarrel  with  the  king.  The  authenticity  of  this  relic  I  was 
not  disinclined  to  allow,  for  surely  the  vesture  was  old  and 
dirty  enough  to  be  indeed  of  the  age  claimed  for  it.  "  0," 
exclaimed  the  custodian,  clasping  his  hands,  "  there  are 
English  people  who  come  to  Sens  simply  to  behold  this 
relic." 

«  Ah,  indeed!"  I  said. 

''  Yes.     Cardinal  Wiseman  has  been  here,  and  so  has 


LYONS.  203 

the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury.     And   do  you   know  Monsieur 
Pugin  ?  " 

"  His  name  I  know." 

"  He,  too,  has  been  here.  He  came  to  Sens  to  see  this 
relic.  O,  the  English  people  think  much  of  it.  They  think 
much  of  Thomas  k  Becket." 

"  But  how  did  all  these  things  escape  the  Eevolutionists, 
when  nearly  all  the  other  churches  of  France  were  emp- 
tied of  their  relics? " 

"  Ah,  they  were  hidden." 

In  another  armory,  one  among  a  hundred  relics  was  a 
cranium  richly  encased,  and  labelled  as  being  the  skull  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  Pope  and  Doctor.  Certainly  that  head 
was  an  object  of  interest  to  me,  as  being  by  any  possibility 
that  skull  inside  of  which  once  worked  the  strong  and  subtle 
brain  of  the  first  Gregory.  But  my  Protestant  incredulity 
as  to  Popish  relics  was  aroused,  when  I  considered  on  the 
same  shelf,  and  on  shelves  above  and  below,  the  multitude 
of  articles  which  solicited  my  faith,  on  the  same  evidence  as 
that  for  the  "  Cranium  S.  Gregorii,  Papa  et  Doctoris." 

After  the  head  of  Gregory  the  Great  were  shown  me 
curiosities  and  relics  more  than  I  can  remember,  —  old  tap- 
estry, —  the  history  of  Joseph  in  forty-six  scenes  carved  in 
ivory, — the  comb  of  St.  Loup,  an  article  very  like  what  is 
now  used  for  horses'  manes, — the  body  of  St.  Savinienne, — 
bones  belonging  to  many  saints,  Mary  Magdalene,  Potentia, 
Paula,  Beata,  Victor,  and  the  Forty  Martyrs. 

On  leaving  Sens,  at  sin  early  hour  in  the  morning,  as  we 
rode  down  the  streets,  I  saw  sitting  out  of  doors  on  the  road- 
side an  old  lady  at  her  spinning-wheel.  She  was  very  neat, 
and  so  busy,  yet  also  so  serene.  And  as  she  sat  in  the 
warm  sunshine,  watching  her  flax  and  plying  her  wheel,  she 
seemed  as  though  she  never  had  heard  of  any  competition 
in  her  work  from  jennies,  mules,  and  steam-engines. 


204  LYONS. 

At  Joigny,  after  breakfast,  the  waiter  counted  the  bits  of 
sugar  in  the  basin,  so  as  to  be  able  to  charge  accurately  for 
the  five  or  six  which  had  been  consumed. 

All  the  way  from  Joigny  to  Auxerre,  the  roadnsides  are 
bordered  with  vineyards.    Auxerre  was  formerly  a  fortified 
city,  and  it  stands  on  two  or  three  steep  hUls,  or  more  prop- 
erly declivities.     While  climbing  among  these  houses  and 
steeps,  I  noticed  a  fine  old  gateway  to  a  church.    It  has 
been  untouched  by  any  other  violence  than  that  of  &e 
gentle,  incessant  wear  of  time  ;  though  all  the  other  ancient 
buildings  of  the  city  have  been  defaced  by  the  Bevolution- 
ists.     On  the  front  of  it  is  a  design  in  honor  of  the  great 
produce  of  Burgundy.     It  consists  of  two  great  recumbent 
figures  with  vines  and  grapes  about  them,  and  with  their 
names  over  their  heads,  —  Ceres,  I  suppose  as  the  person- 
age by  whom  first  the  vine  was  cultivated,  and  Noah,  as  the 
person  by  whom  first  wine  was  made  from  its  fruit. 

At  Yermanton  there  is  a  large  hotel ;  but  for  break&st  it 
was  told  us  that  there  was  neither  milk,  tea,  nor  coffee  to 
be  had.  And  we  were  informed  that,  though  it  was  possi- 
ble to  purchase  coffee  in  the  town,  yet  that  neither  cream 
nor  milk  could  possibly  be  found.  However,  at  last,  milk 
was  obtained  for  us  by  a  messenger  who  climbed  a  steep 
hill  above  the  town,  and  bribed  a  woman  to  milk  her  cow 
for  some  foreigners,  who  could  not  possibly  live  without  milk 
for  their  breakfasts,  though  not  caring  at  all  for  either 
cheese  or  wine, 

Avallon  is  a  delightful  town.  It  stands  on  the  top  of  a 
high  rock,  and  is  almost  entirely  surrounded  by  a  deep  ra- 
vine. Along  the  edge  of  this  ravine  are  very  beautifiil 
walks,  from  which  there  is  a  view  into  the  depths  below, 
and  far  away  among  the  hills  and  along  the  glittering  course 
of  the  river.    In  all  France,  too,  I  have  not  seen  a  town 


LYONS.  205 

with  which  I  have  been  as  much  pleased  as  I  have  been  by 
this,  both  fox:  the  look  of  the  streets  and  the  appearance  of 
the  people.  In  connection  with  this  superior  character  of 
the  city,  it  is  worth  noticing  that  it  is  said  to  be  a  place  of 
much  devotion.  In  the  evening,  at  the  sound  of  a  bell,  from 
alongside  of  the  river  where  was  our  hotel,  we  ascended  into 
the  town,  to  attend  service  in  a  church.  The  sermon  was 
on  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  was  an  excellent  discourse. 
At  the  commencement  of  it,  the  priest  held  his  cap  in  his 
hand ;  but  soon  he  put  it  on  his  head ;  and  in  a  little  while 
he  seated  himself  in  the  narrow  pulpit  And  thus  wearing 
his  cap,  and  sitting  down,  he  continued  his  sermon  in  a 
manner  very  easy,  yet  very  impressive.  Seldom,  indeed, 
have  I  heard  a  better  sermon,  or  seen  a  more  attentive  con- 
gregation, or  walked  in  neater  streets,  or  beheld  a  more 
orderly  people  than  in  this  town  de  heaucoup  de  devotian. 
1  am  afraid  that,  in  regard  to  some  other  places  of  great  de- 
votion, I  may  have  to  tell  of  something  very  different  from 
cleanliness,  order,  and  prosperity;  and  therefore  I  would 
add,  that  at  Avallon  the  population  seemed  not  only  very 
religious,  but  also  very  intelligent. 

From  Paris  to  Avallon,  limestone  peeps  through  the  soil 
continually ;  but  at  Avallon  it  is  sandstone  instead  of  lime- 
stone. However,  before  reaching  Avallon,  the  road  had 
become  an  ascent,  and  so  it  continued  to  be  for  thirty  miles, 
to  Saulieu.  As  the  road  ascends,  there  is  a  great  change 
visible  in  the  soil  and  the  vegetation ;  granite  appearing  in 
place  of  sandstone ;  and  one  tree  and  another  disappearing, 
and  others  growing  in  their  stead.  But  from  Saulieu,  al- 
most from  the  doorsteps  of  the  hotel,  our  course  was  down- 
wards  into  warmer  air,  and  through  a  country  beautiful 
with  the  first  coming  of  summer,  —  with  hawthorn,  broom, 

TOL.  T.  KO.  n.  18 


206  LT0N8. 

and  the  kciislrtree  in  full  blossom,  and  with  fields  richlj 
Tariegated  with  clover  and  lucerne,  in  flower. 

Amay-le-Duc  is  a  dirtj  little  place  surrounded  bj  vine- 
jards.  In  the  church  on  the  altar  I  saw  a  plaster  inu^e  of 
the  Virgin.  Round  the  neck  of  the  image  was  hmig  a  little 
glass  case,  containing  numerous  bits  of  bone,  purporting  to 
be  relics  of  saints,  and  bearing  the  names  of  Justin  Martjr, 
St.  Ursula,  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins,  and  others. 

At  Ivry  our  staj  was  at  the  house  of  the  Maitre  de  Poste. 
Posting  and  diligences  are  now  almost  extinct  in  France, 
along  the  chief  routes.    But  what  formerlj  were  ^e  chief 
hotels  are  still  the  chie^  and  are  still  places  where,  in  old 
English  phrase,  is  given  ^  lodging  for  man  and  beasf   Sat 
except  in  the  largest  towns,  the  chief  hoteb  are  sadly  de- 
cayed from  what  they  once  were.    These  old  poBting-booses 
are  usually  very  large,  and  occupy  the  four  sides  oi  a  court. 
On  the  front  of  them  usually  are  announcements,  such  as 
Hotel  of  the  Post,  and  Horses  to  Let     But  these  signs  are 
always  dim  and  rotting.    Not  one  of  them  is  there  which 
would  seem  to  have  been  renovated  since  the  first  steam- 
engine  started  on  a  railway.     Such  a  sense  of  decay  as 
comes  over  one,  after  having  lodged  in  two  or  three  of  these 
houses  I    For  none  of  them  are  half  occupied ;  none  of  them 
have  been  painted  for  a  long  time ;  and  in  all  of  them,  in 
some  part,  the  roofs  either  are  falling  or  else  are  bendisg 
against  a  fall.     But  of  all  these  decaying  houses,  the  hotel 
at  Ivry  is  the  worst.    It  is  a  large  house,  in  which,  however) 
only  four  or  five  rooms  are  ever  occupied.    The  apartment 
for  guests  is  very  spacious,  and  contains  some  handsome 
pieces  of  furniture  ;  but  it  was  so  dirty  that  we  were  obliged 
ourselves  to  have  it  cleaned  for  our  use,  by  a  person  not 
belonging  to  the  hotel.  I  shall  long  remember  Ivry,  I  think, 
for  its  decay,  dirt,  cobwebs,  sjaders,  extortionate  prioe%  ind 


LTOKS.  207 

for  the  greatest  bull-dog  which  I  have  ever  seen,  and  also 
for  the  larks  in  its  neighborhood,  so  numerous  that  thej 
seemed  to  fill  the  heavens  with  their  singing. 

On  the  way  from  Ivrj  to  Chalons,  at  the  village  of  La 
Rochefort  are  to  be  seen  standing  high  above  the  surround- 
ing houses  what  are  the  remains  of  an  old  chateau.  Evi- 
dently no  long  while  ago  it  was  a  strong  castle ;  and  probably 
it  was  one  of  those  many  great  houses  against  which  the 
'peasantry  rose,  and  which  they  demolished,  in  the  times 
of  the  first  revolution.  Places  whence  power  and  wealth 
have  been  chased,  and  perhaps  also  where  protection,  kind- 
ness, and  wisdom  have  ceased  to  dwell,  these  strong  old 
ruins,  from  their  rocky  heights,  seem  to  ask  of  the  villagers 
round,  "  What  the  better  are  you  for  our  destruction,  beauti- 
ful and  strong  as  we  once  were  in  the  midst  of  your  wretched 
dwellings  ?  " 

At  Chalons,  on  going  into  the  churches,  I  perceived  that  I 
was  in  one  of  those  places  in  which  the  greatest  welcome 
had  been  given  to  the  late  Papal  decision  as  to  the  birth  of 
"  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus."  That  she  was  bom  without 
any  portion  of  that  sin  attaching  to  her  which  Orthodoxy 
fastens  on  all  the  human  race,  had  been  for  seven  or  eight 
hundred  years  a  matter  of  argument  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church ;  and  at  times  had  been  the  subject  of  bitter  and 
even  furious  controversy  among  the  monastic  orders.  How- 
ever, three  or  four  years  ago,  it  was  decided  by  the  Pope 
that  "  the  Mother  of  Grod,  our  Lady,"  was  immaculate  from 
her  creation.  "  O  Holy  Mother,  conceived  without  sin,"  — 
this  dogma  in  honor  of  the  Virgin  is  to  be  seen  now  pub- 
lished in-  newly  gilt  letters  underneath  old  paintings ;  or 
printed  and  framed  and  suspended  near  altars ;  or  inscribed 
upon  stone,  near  statues,  or  painted  on  the  fronts  of  houses. 
Soon  in  the  popular  mind  this  theological  doctrine  of  yester- 


208  LTOKS. 

daj  will  be  like  those  manj  old  notions  in  the  Church,  which 
everybody  thinks  that  everybody  has  always  believed. 

At  this  city,  from  the  side  of  the  river,  I  saw  Mont  Blanc 
At  first,  to  a  very  casual  glance,  it  might  have  seemed  like 
a  white  doud.  But  with  regarding  it  a  little  while,  it 
seemed  no  cloud,  but  rather  like  a  great  white  hand  afar  off, 
lifled  from  beneath  above  the  rim  of  the  horizon, — a  some- 
thing unusual,  awful.  A  new  form  of  nature,  it  was  nature 
with  a  power  to  which  I  had  not  grown  dull,  —  nature  with 
a  meaning  plain,  staring,  unavoidable.  All  night,  afler  the 
sight,  there  was  on  my  mind  an  awe  startUag,  new,  and  as 
though  of  the  supernatural,  -—  as  though  a  rock  had  spoken 
to  me,  or  as  though  I  had  been  beckoned  from  the  distant 
heavens,  or  t^s  though  there  had  been  given  me  some  sign 
from  out  of  infinity. 

From  Chalons  to  Lyons,  our  course  was  down  the  Saone. 
And  from  Lyons  we  journeyed  by  the  Bhone  to  Aix-les- 
Bains.  And  surely  it  is  the  very  perfection  of  travel  to  be 
seated  upon  a  steamboat,  and  to  be  borne  through  such 
scenery  as  that  upon  the  Hhone,  past  pretty  little  villages, 
through  narrow  gorges,  underneath  overhanging  rockSj 
alongside  the  greenest  of  green  meadows,  and  in  and  out 
through  the  quick  windings  of  the  river  among  hills  and 
finely  shaped  rocks.  Suddenly  what  a  change  there  is  to 
be  remarked,  in  the  appearance  of  the  people,  on  the  banks 
of  the  river !  And  at  the  next  little  port,  at  which  we  stop, 
we  learn  that  we  are  in  Savoy.  It  is  no  arbitrary  division 
merely  of  land,  by  which  the  empire  of  France  and  the 
Duchy  of  Savoy  are  separated.  For  there  is  a  division  be- 
tween the  two,  not  merely  by  posts  and  rocks,  but  by  differ- 
ences in  blood,  features,  and  manners.  I  noticed  three  or 
four  washerwomen  at  work  on  the  river-side,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  it  was  not  possible  that,  even  in  their  attitudes, 


LTOKS.  269 

they  could  hare  been  the  same  as  they  were,  if  they  had 
been  bom  at  even  the  very  next  village  below,  a  few  miles 
down  the  river.  They  reminded  me  of  females  in  Italian 
pictures.  Indeed,  it  needed  not  the  passport  officer  to  re- 
mind us  that  we  were  in  a  fresh  country,  and  that  France 
was  left  behind  us.  For  this  was  evident  to  us,  in  the  live- 
ly, swarthy  features  of  the  people,  in  the  grace  of  their 
movements,  in  the  appearance  of  the  houses,  and  even  in 
the  manner  in  which  the  vines  reached  out  their  branches. 

Lyons  is  one  of  the  finest  cities  of  France,-— one  of  the 
most  populous,  most  wealthy,  and  most  prosperous.  It  is 
eminent  for  its  manufactures  in  silk.  Its  inhabitants  have 
a  reputation  for  turbulence,  on  account  of  their  two  revolts 
against  the  government  of  Louis  Philippe ;  and  of  which 
the  last  was  with  difficulty  suppressed,  and  only  after  more 
than  a  thousand  of  the  insurgents  had  lost  their  lives. 

This  city  contained  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  at 
the  time  of  the  first  French  revolution.  And  from  what 
they  did  and  dared,  they  would  appear  to  have  been  a  pop- 
ulation of  a  superior  character.  Monsieur  and  Madame 
Koland  were  connected  with  Lyons ;  and  it  would  seem  as 
though  the  citizens  of  the  place  had  not  been  unworthy  to 
have  their  names  associated  with  those  of  the  Bolands. 
They  opposed  the  acts  of  a  club  of  Terrorists  in  the  city. 
And  for  this  reason,  it  was  decreed  by  the  National  Conven- 
tion that  Lyons  should  no  longer  exist,  and  that  its  very 
name  should  be  effaced.  Twenty-seven  thousand  shells,  and 
eleven  thousand  red-hot  shot  were  fired  into  the  place,  and 
thirty  thousand  people  were  killed  during  the  siege.  After 
the  capture  of  the  city,  under  the  direction  of  Collot  d'Her- 
bois,  Couthon,  and  Forche,  twenty  hundred  persons  were 
mangled,  and  more  than  three  millions  of  dollars  were  spent 
in  demolishing  such  houses  as  had  escaped  destruction  by 

18* 


210  LTOKB. 

the  artillerj.  What  little  was  then  left  of  the  citj,  by  a 
decree  of  the  Convention,  had  its  name  changed  to  Com- 
mune-Affranchie.  ^Oh!"  exclaimed  Madame  Roland,  as 
she  was  earned  to  the  guillotine,  ^  O  Liberty,  what  deeds 
are  done  in  thy  name !  ** 

And  in  the  names  also  of  order  and  religion,  what  atroci- 
ties have  been  committed,  and  even  in  Uiis  same  city.  For 
in  Lyons,  especially,  St.  Bartholomew's  was  an  awfiil  day, 
in  that  year  when  Charles  the  Ninth  commanded  the  most 
horrible  massacre  which  has  ever  yet  been  known.  And 
after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, — a  measure  by 
which  Protestant  worship  was  forbidden,  —  there  was  great 
sufiering  in  Lyons  ;  and  ultimately  there  was  a  great  loss  of 
prosperity.  For,  intent  upon  liberty  of  conscience,  great 
numbers  of  the  silk-weavers  abandoned  the  city  and  carried 
their  art  to  Amsterdam  in  Holland,  and  to  London,  where 
they  settled  themselves  in  a  district  which  was  then  almost 
open  country,  called  Spitalfields. 

From  its  very  foundation,  Lyons  has  had  an  extraordi- 
nary history.  And  indeed  it  would  seem  from  its  position  as 
though  it  had  been  predestined  to  something  unusual.  For 
it  stands  near  the  confluence  of  two  great  rivers,  and  was 
founded  on  the  side  of  a  mountain.  Lyons  occupies  now  a 
vast  space,  as  well  as  its  ancient  position  on  the  mountain. 

This  mountain  is  called  Fourvieres,  and  on  its  side,  for 
streets,  there  are  steep  flights  of  steps.  On  the  brow  of  the 
mount  is  a  church,  the  tower  of  which  is  surmounted  by  a 
gilded  statue  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  of  an  immense  size.  My- 
self I  sought  the  summit  for  the  sake  of  the  fine  view  from 
it.  But  while  climbing  the  ascent  I  found  that  the  moun- 
tain itself  was  well  worthy  of  examination.  The  streets  up 
the  side  of  it  are  very  narrow,  and  are  flights  of  steps,  and 
sometimes  even  are  staircases.    Suth  a  confusion  as  it  seems 


LTONi.  3%l 

to  be  on  this  mount,  of  steep  steps,  terraces,  rows  of  honses 
leaning  towards  one  another,  great  old  gateways,  gardens 
high  up  in  the  air,  long  lanes  between  huge  blind  walls, 
modem  forts,  remains  of  ancient  fortifications,  doors  opening 
into  mysterious  vaults  or  passages,  pieces  of  stone-wall, 
which  evidently  are  not  of  the  last  thousand  years,  and  brick 
arches  which  at  once  are  recognized  as  being  Eoman,  and 
portions  of  an  ancient  aqueduct.  On  seeing  inscribed  Lug- 
dunum,  which  is  the  Latin  name  for  Lyons,  there  came  into 
my  mind  several  classical  allusions  to  the  city.  And  when 
afterwards  I  visited  the  ancient  buildings  and  the  old  ruins 
of  the  city,  and  examined  the  large  collection  of  antiquities 
which  is  contained  in  the  museum,  I  thought  that  the  early 
history  of  Lyons,  which  is  interesting  in  itself,  was  rendered 
yet  more  interesting  by  the  manner  in  which  it  is  illustrated 
by  ancient  authors  and  by  old  remains. 

Lyons  was  built  by  the  Bomans,  and  was  founded  at  an 
era  when  it  had  become  their  policy  to  strengthen  their  em- 
pire by  erecting  cities  along  their  frontiers,  and  at  a  time 
indeed  when  many  colonies  had  already  been  sent  out  by 
them  for  this  purpose.  In  consequence  of  the  intrigues  of 
Mark  Antony  in  Gaul,  several  legions  became  suspected  by 
the  Koman  Senate,  by  whom  they  were  disarmed,  and  were 
commanded  to  proceed  to  the  junction  of  the  Bbone  and 
Saone,  and  there  build  a  city.  Dion  is  the  authority  for 
this  statement.  But  I  confess  that  myself  I  have  not  ex- 
amined his  history.  The  quotation  firom  Dion  which  I 
make  use  of  says  that  Flancus  was  the  name  of  the  imme- 
diate founder  of  the  city,  and  that  also  he  conducted  a  colony 
of  Romans  to  inhabit  the  new  city,  which  was  called  Lug- 
dunum. 

This  Flancus,  when  he  was  -upwards  of  eighty  years  of 
age,  was  elected  to  be  Consul  of  Borne,  for  the  second  time. 


212  LTONfl. 

Always  he  would  appear  to  have  been  a  snccessfbl  man. 
And  a  fortanate  man  too  he  must  be  called,  in  regard  at 
least  to  fame,  on  account  of  the  eminent  persons  who  were 
his  friends,  and  through  whom  his  memory  is  even  now 
quite  fresh.  Caesar,  by  whom  his  name  is  mentioned  in 
those  Commentaries  which  are  written  as  though  slowly  and 
concisely  upon  a  shield  of  brass,  —  and  Horace,  who  ad- 
dressed to  him  one  of  those  Odes  in  which  the  most  toil- 
some Romans  delighted  to  sing  of  ease  and  quiet  pleasure 
as  the  great  end  of  Hfe,  —  and  Cicero,  who  corresponded 
with  him,  and  who  speaks  of  him,  in  one  of  his  letters,  in 
these  words,  which  have  often  since  been  quoted  for  their 
felicity:  "  Omnia  summa  consecutus  es,  Virtute  duce,  comite 
Fortuna,'*  —  "  Every  high  object  thou  hast  achieved,  with 
Virtue  for  thy  leader  and  Fortune  for  thy  companion." 

And  he  was  fortunate  even  in  regard  to  his  tomb.  For 
it  is  said  that  at  Gaeta  there  stands  yet  the  tomb  of  Lucius 
Munatius  Flancus.  In  the  epitaph  are  enumerated  his  dig- 
nities, and  his  greater  achievements,  —  that  he  triumphed 
over  the  Rheti,  and  afterwards  built  a  temple  to  Saturn,  — 
that  he  divided  among  his  soldiers  the  lands  of  Beneventum 
in  Italy,  and  that  he  led  a  colony  to  Lyons  in  France. 

From  the  foundation  of  the  city  its  growth  was  rapid. 
From  Strabo  we  learn  that,  very  soon  afler  Lyons  was 
founded,  pieces  of  gold  and  silver,  coined  in  that  city,  were 
circulated  all  over  the  world.  In  corroboration  of  this 
statement  there  is  yet  in  existence  a  coin  which  was  issued 
in  the  fourth  year  of  the  city,  and  which  bears  upon  it  the 
names  of  Lyons  and  Mark  Antony. 

About  the  twentieth  year  of  the  city,  Agrippa,  the  son-in- 
law  of  Augustus  Caesar,  came  into  Gaul,  in  consequence  of 
some  disturbance  among  the  natives.  In  order  to  insure 
tranquillity  in  the  country,  he  determined  that  every  part  of 


LTOHS.  218 

it  should  be  made  easily  accessible.  And  for  this  purpose 
be  had  it  all  covered  with  a  network  of  roads,  of  which  Ly- 
ons was  made  the  centre.  Round  the  city  there  are  yet 
several  remains  of  these  roads  to  be  seen. 

Three  or  four  years  after  Agrippa  came  Augustus  Caesar 
himself  to  Lyons,  accompanied  by  his  step-son,  Tiberius. 
It  was  during  the  reign  of  Augustus,  and  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  Boman  empire  from  Gaul,  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
bom ;  and  it  was  during  the  reign  of  Tiberias  that  he  was 
crucified. 

By  Augustus  the  city  of  Lyons  was  made  to  be  the  me- 
tropolis of  Celtic  Graul.  And  he  made  it  his  residence  dur- 
ing the  three  years  which  he  passed  in  the  country.  He 
was  eminently  successful  here  in  arraogmg  public  affairs, 
and  in  attracting  to  himself  the  affections  of  the  people. 

A  few  years  afler  the  departure  of  Augustus  into  Italy, 
the  sixty  nations  of  Gaul  united  together  to  build  a  temple 
to  him,  and  to  institute  a  ministry  of  priests  for  its  service. 
In  the  course  of  time,  this  temple  became  famous  every- 
where for  its  beauty,  the  number  of  attendants  belonging  to 
it,  the  annual  exhibition  of  games  connected  with  it,  and  for 
prizes  given  at  it  to  successful  candidates  in  rhetorical  ex- 
hibitions, both  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages. 

A  temple  in  honor,  in  worship,  of  a  living  person  f  So 
strangely  this  sounds  !  Yet  it  was  in  accordance  with  the 
practice  by  which  the  imperial  family  of  Bome  was  called 
Divine.  Indeed,  a  few  grains  of  incense  placed  upon  an 
altar  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Emperor  became  a  test  of  loyalty. 
And  it  was  for  scrupling  this  act,  when  it  was  demanded  of 
them  by  the  magistrates,  that  so  many  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians became  martyrs. 

Connected  with  this  temple  of  Augustus  were  three  or- 
ders of  ministers ; — one,  whose  office  H  was  to  offer  the 


214  LYONS. 

sacrifices;  another,  wbose  business  it  was  to  inspect  the 
entrails  of  yictims  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  omens ;  and 
a  third  class,  whose  office  it  was  to  preside  over  the  games 
and  exhibitions  which  were  given  in  honor  of  Augustas. 
There  are  many  allusions  to  this  temple  in  the  later  Latin 
authors.  And  there  are  many  ancient  medals  which  are 
stamped  with  its  image.  It  was  dedicated  just  before  the 
beginning  of  our  present  era,  —  ten  years  before  the  birth  of 
Jesus,  in  the  light  of  whose  doctrine  it  was  aU  to  become  so 
strange,  so  repugnant,  and  so  monstrous,  —  this  altar  and 
these  priestly  services  in  honor  of  a  mortaL 

The  temple  was  dedicated  on  a  day  which,  a  few  years 
afterwards,  in  the  arrangement  of  the  calendar,  was  made  to 
be  the  first  day  of  August.  Drusus,  a  kinsman  of  Augustus, 
acted  as  Augur  at  the  dedication.  And  at  Lyons  it  hap- 
pened, that,  on  the  very  day  of  the  dedication,  there  was  bom 
to  Drusus  a  son,  who  was  called  Claudius,  and  who  became 
Emperor  of  Rome. 

Claudius  had  much  affection  for  his  native  place.  And 
it  was  on  his  urgent  movement  in  the  Roman  Senate,  that 
Lyons  was  endowed  with  the  privileges  of  a  colony  of  Rome. 
Previously  it  had  been  a  municipal  town,  and  the  citizens  of 
it  had  been  eligible  to  any  of  the  offices  of  Rome,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  Romans  themselves.  But  by  being 
recognized  as  a  Roman  colony,  Lyons  became  a  little  Rome, 
as  an  old  author  expresses  it,  the  citizens  of  which  were  en- 
titled to  vote  at  public  elections  in  the  capital  of  the  world. 
Also  by  being  created  a  colony,  Lyons  was  endowed  with 
the  same  dignities,  privileges,  customs,  and  laws  as  Rome 
itself.  The  laws  of  Lyons  became  the  same  as  those  of 
Rome,  and  so  did  the  titles  of  its  officers,  —  Senators,  Prae- 
tors, Quaestors,  and  Ediles.  The  project  of  endowing  a  city 
not  in  Italy  with  all  the  privileges  which  belonged  to  Rome 


LYONS.  215 

itself,  occasioned  great  dissatisfaction  and  remonstrance,  and 
especially  in  the  Senate.  The  Emperor  addressed  the  Sen- 
ate at  a  special  meeting  convened  on  the  subject  of  his  pro- 
posal. The  report  of  his  speech,  which  Tacitas  gives  in  his 
history,  ends  with  the  sentiment,  ^  What  are  now  thought  to 
be  most  ancient  customs  were  once  novelties;  and  what 
to-day  we  are  testing  by  precedents  will  some  time  itself 
stand  for  an  example." 

By  the  Lyonnese  this  speech  of  the  Emperor  was  en- 
graved upon  tables  of  bronze,  for  preservation  and  public 
use.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  two  of  these  tables,  contain- 
ing the  larger  part  of  the  speech^  were  discovered  by  some 
workmen  who  were  digging  on  the  side  of  a  hilL  Perhaps 
owing  to  some  excellence  in  the  metal,  these  plates  are  al- 
most as  fresh  as  though  they  had  been  only  just  engraved ; 
and  they  are  certainly  among  the  most  remarkable  remains 
of  antiquity. 

But  in  the  hundredth  year  of  its  existence,  the  city,  or 
rather  perhaps  a  very  large  part  of  it,  was  burned  to  the 
ground  in  a  night,  and  in  a  manner  which  was  regarded  as 
altogether  mysterious.  It  was  a  grand  subject  on  which  for 
Seneca  to  moralize.  And  accordingly,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
he  describes  the  terrible  calamity,  and  what  ought  to  be 
thought  about  it  Throughout  the  world  the  disaster  of 
Lyons  appears  to  have  produced  great  consternation,  and 
probably  sympathy.  And  the  imperial  pupil  of  Seneca, 
Nero,  gave  a  large  sum  of  money  to  assist  the  Lyonnese  in 
their  sufferings.  Very  soon,  however,  they  recovered  them- 
selves. But  it  is  not  from  ancient  authors  merely  that  this 
conflagration  is  known  of.  For  there  are  remains  of  it  dis- 
covered even  now,  from  time  to  time,  quite  numerous  and 
important,  —  mosaic  floors,  articles  of  marble,'  porcelain,  and 
glass,  bronze  lamps  half  melted,  and  portions  of  the  lead 
pipes  which  had  been  connected  with  the  aqueduct. 


216  LT0K8. 

Lyons  was  not  a  city  to  perish  bj  a  fire.  For  its  chief 
strength  was  not  in  its  wealth,  but  in  its  commercial  position, 
at  the  centre  of  the  fonr  great  roads  by  which  €raul  was 
traversed  from  end  to  end,  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  great 
streams,  from  which  there  was  access  to  the  interior  of  the 
country,  and  also  to  the  sea,  and  to  Italy,  and  to  all  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  According  to  Strabo,  Lyons 
was,  in  his  day,  become  the  emporium  of  the  country,  —  the 
grand  market,  where  met  the  sixty  nations  <^  Graul,  and 
where  were  received  and  sold  the  productions  of  Spain, 
Africa,  and  the  East  Indeed,  on  examining  the  inscrip- 
tions on  ancient  marbles,  which  yet  exist  in  the  dty,  it  is 
easily  perceived  that  the  early  inhabitants  were  a  mercantile 
people,  having  among  them  all  the  institutions  and  officers 
incidental  to  a  great  and  extended  commerce. 

Among  the  ancient  remains  seen  here,  the  tombs  and 
tablets  commemorative  of  the  dead  are  very  numerous, 
and  sometimes  they  illustrate  very  vividly  the  diaracter  of 
the  times  to  which  they  belong.  In  the  museum  and  else- 
where are  yet  to  be  read  funeral  inscriptions  for  a  linen 
merchant,  a  director  of  iron-works,  a  manufacturer  of  hair- 
cloth, and  a  dealer  in  fish  and  cattle.  There  is  also  to  be 
seen  a  monument,  which  was  erected  by  two  of  the  prov- 
inces of  Gaul  in  honor  of  a  person  whose  official  connection 
was  with  carriers,  packers,  and  weighers.  There  are  mar- 
bles inscribed  to  soldiers  and  to  persons  charged  with  the 
care  of  the  public  games.  One  tablet  commemorates  a 
priest,  who  had  filled  every  office  in  his  native  town  of 
Troyes,  and  who  had  then  been  elected  by  the  three  prov- 
inces of  Gaul  to  the  dignity  of  priest  in  the  temple  of  Au- 
gustus. And  by  another  tablet  is  commemorated  Placidus, 
the  First  of  the  Sixty  Haruspices  of  the  temple  of  Augus- 
tus ;  and  whose  place  of  burial  was  presented  by  the  most 


LYONS.  217 

sacred  order  of  which  he  was  a  member.  There  is  a  very 
singular  inscription,  perhaps  to  a  Christian  woman  by  her 
Pagan  friends,  in  which  it  is  said  that  she  became  impious 
from  having  been  excessively  pious.  There  is  an  epitaph 
by  a  Tribune  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Legion  to  his  wife  Maria, 
in  which  he  describes  her  as  his  freed-woman  and  his  very 
dear  wife.  And  there  is  an  inscription,  which  by  the  form 
and  the  terms  of  it  would  appear  as  though  it  might  have 
been  erected  to  the  memory  of  a  Christian  wife  by  a  priest 
in  the  temple  of  Augustus,  the  unbelieving  bat  appreciating 
husband  of  a  believing  wife ;  for  she  is  described  as  having 
been  a  woman  of  the  rarest  purity,  and  of  the  most  abound- 
ing affection  for  all  persons,  and  who  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-two,  having  never  had  with  her  husband  the  slightest 
quarrel. 

In  the  museum,  there  is  one  other  monument,  which  must 
be  mentioned,  —  a  taurobole.  It  is  of  the  year  one  hundred 
and  sixty,  and  commemorates  a  sacrifice  at  Rome,  offered 
by  the  city  of  Lyons  in  behalf  of  the  Emperor  Antoninus 
and  bid  children.  Also  on  the  taurobole  are  mentioned 
some  circumstances  of  the  sacrifice,  —  that  ^^milius  Carpus 
received  the  horns  of  the  bull  and  brought  them  from  the 
Vatican,  —  that  at  his  own  expense  he  caused  to  be  conse- 
crated the  altar  and  the  horns  of  the  bull,  by  the  ministry 
of  Quintus  Samnus  Secundus,  priest,  who  was  presented 
with  the  crown  and  the  armlets  by  the  Fifteen,  and  on  whom 
the  priesthood  was  conferred  in  perpetuity,  by  the  most  holy 
order  of  Lyons. 

The  peculiarity  of  the  taurobole  was  that  the  bull  was 
killed  in  such  a  manner  as  that  the  blood  of  the  victim  flowed 
over  the  person  on  whose  behalf  the  sacrifice  was  made,  or 
over  the  body  of  his  representative.  A  pit  was  dug,  into 
which  descended  the  person  for  whom  the  sacrifice  was 

VOL.  V.  NO.  II.  19 


218  LTONS. 

made.  Over  the  pit  were  laid  boards :  and  on  these  boards 
the  ball  was  killed.  The  person  in  the  pit  received  the 
blood  of  the  victim  on  his  head  and  on  his  clothes  as  copi- 
ously as  he  could.  On  emerging  from  the  pit,  he  became 
an  object  of  reverence.  And  his  clothes  soaked  in  blood  he 
continued  to  wear  till  thej  became  ragged. 

w^milius  Carpus,  just  returned  from  Rome,  his  clothes  all 
stiff  with  blood,  as  he  passed  through  the  Forum  and  up  the 
streets  of  Lyons,  was  &  person  sacred,  envied.  And  jet  he 
was  not  so  in  the  eyes  of  all.  For,  as  waa  evident  from 
subsequent  developments,  at  this  time  there  were  Christians 
in  Lyons. 

Seventeen  years  later,  the  existence  of  Christians  in  Ly- 
ons was  known  in  the  whole  country  by  report,  and  was 
visible  to  every  attendant  at  the  public  games.  For  in  Ly- 
ons it  was  at  the  temple  of  Augustus  that  the  first  martyrs 
were  made,  and  that  Christianity  was  first  publicly  known 
in  its  power  to  inspire  women  and  slaves  with  an  endur- 
ance surpassing  the  rarest,  highest  acts  of  heathen  heroes. 

In  the  year  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  of  our  era, 
there  were  issued  from  Rome  by  the  Emperor  Marcus  Au- 
relius  orders  to  search  out  the  professors  of  Christianity. 
In  Lyons  there  had  been  disciples  of  Jesus  already  many 
years ;  but  they  are  known  to  us  only  in  consequence  of  the 
imperial  command,  by  which  they  were  dragged  into  the 
Forum,  and  exposed  in  the  amphitheatre.  It  was  in  this 
persecution  that  the  Forty  Martyrs  died  at  Lyons. 

In  the  history  of  Eusebius,  there  is  a  letter  which  p^^ 
ports  tP  have  been  sent  from  the  church  in  Lyons  to  the 
churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  and  in  which  are  narrated 
the  beginning  and  the  progress  of  the  persecution,  —  how  at 
first  they  were  forbidden  being  seen  near  the  Forum,  the 
baths,  or  any  public  building.     Then,  how  Pothinus,  their 


LYONS.  21d 

bishop,  an  old  man  of  ninety  years,  had  been  cniellj  beaten 
and  confined  in  a  dungeon,  where  he  died;  how  their  hea- 
then servants  had  been  sabomed  to  accuse  them  of  eating 
human  fiesh,  and  of  committing  crimes  too  horrible  for  men- 
tion ;  and  how  .persons  had  been  thus  transported  with 
indignation  against  them,  who  formerly  had  been  more 
moderate,  in  consequence  of  being  connected  with  them 
either  by  blood  or  friendship.  In  this  letter  are  detailed 
the  terrible  cruelties  to  which  Blandina  was  subjected.  She 
was  a  slave,  ^^d  had  become  a  Christian  throu^  her  mis- 
tress. It  was  feared,  that,  before  the  magistrates  and  in  the 
hands  of  the  torturers,  she  might  deny  the  Lord  Jesus.  '^  But 
the  blessed  woman,  like  a  generous  wrestler,  recovered  fresh 
vigor  in  the  act  of  confession.  And  evidently  it  was  solace 
and  strength  and  annihilation  of  all  h^  pain  for  her  to  say, 
<  I  am  a  Christian,  and  there  is  no  evil  committed  amongst 
us.'" 

Some  of  the  Christians  were  recreant  to  their  profession. 
But  those  who  endured  to  the  end  were  probably  as  noble 
a  band  of  martyrs  as  ever  joined  the  great  army.  "  The 
martyrs  were  put  to  death  in  various  ways.  Or,  in  other 
words,  they  wove,  a  chaplet  of  various  odors  and  flowers, 
and  presented  it  to  the  Father.  In  truth,  it  became  the  wis- 
dom and  goodness  of  Grod  to  appoint  that  his  servants,  after 
enduring  a  great  and  variegated  contest,  should  as  victors 
receive  the  great  crown  of  immortality.  Maturus,  Sanctus, 
Blandina,  and  Attains  were  led  to  the  wild  beasts  into  the 
amphitheatre  as  if  they  had  suffered  nothing  before,  one  day 
extraordinary  of  the  games  being  afforded  to  the  people  on 
our  account." 

These  shows  were  the  Augustan  games,  and  were  con- 
nected with  tbe  temple  of  Augustus ;  and  they  were  pre- 
ceded, interspersed,  and  concluded  by  sacrifices,  at  which 


220  LYONS. 

the  priests  of  Augustas  officiated.  Sacrifices  to  Rome  and 
to  Augustus,* —  matches  in  boxing,  wrestling,  and  racing,  — 
sacrifices,  —  fights  between  gladiators,  —  sacrifices,  —  fights 
between  wild  beasts,  —  and  again  sacrifices,  —  rhetorical 
displays  by  competitors  for  the  prizes  of  Claudius,  —  and 
yet  again  sacrifices,  —  something  like  this  was  the  character 
of  the  exhibitions,  in  the  course  of  which  these  early  mar- 
tyrs were  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  wild  beasts  in  an  arena, 
round  and  above  which  were  seated  thousands  of  spectators 
from  all  parts  of  Gaul,  and  probably  even  fix»m^emote  quar- 
ters of  the  world. 

After  the  sights  were  over,  the  dead  bodies  of  the  Chris- 
tians were  left  lying  on  the  ground,  exposed  for  some  days, 
but  guarded  by  soldiers,  to  prevent  their  being  carried  away. 
The  surviving  disciples  were  upbraided  the  while  by  their 
fellow-townsmen,  who  said,  ^  Where  is  your  Grod ;  and  what 
profit  do  you  derive  from  your  religion,  which  yet  you  valued 
more  than  life  itself?" 

Only  ten  or  twelve  years  passed  by  after  this,  and  the 
number  of  Christians  in  Lyons  was  very  great,  owing,  it  is 
said,  to  the  preaching  of  St.  Irenseus,  and  owing  also,  very 
probably,  to  the  effect  left  upon  the  public  mind  by  the  con- 
stancy and  devoutness  and  faith  of  the  martyrs  at  the  games. 

Irenseus  would  appear  to  have  been  a  person  of  great 
ability;  for  he  was  eminently  successful  as  a  preacher,  and 
he  had  also  considerable  reputation  as  the  author  of  a  work 
entitled,  "A  Refutation  of  False  Science,"  and  which  was  di- 
rected against  the  Valentinians  and  the  Gnostics.  Irenseus 
himself  was  Greek,  and  so  probably  was  a  large  part  of  his 
church.  For  it  is  known  that  at  Lyons  there  were  many 
Greeks  settled,  as  all  over  the  Roman  empire  there  always 
were,  wherever  there  were  any  openings  for  commerce. 
The  rapid  increase  of  the  church  in  Lyons  was  accordant 


LYOKfl.  221 

with  the  general  history  of  Christiamtj.  For  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  great  cities  and  towns  became  Christian  long  be- 
fore the  occupants  of  country  places.  And  this  was  so 
mach  and  so  commonly  the  case,  that  the  word  for  country- 
man came  to  be  the  word  for  a  heathen;  and  paganusy  a 
man  from  the  country,  meant  also  an  adherent  of  idolatry. 

Within  twaity  years  from  the  death  of  Pothinus,  it  is 
said  that  the  inhabitants  of  Lycms  had  all  become  Chris- 
tians. But  firom  their  numbers  these  Christians  of  Lyons 
were  again  destined  to  be  a  memorable  instance  of  martyr- 
dom. About  the  year  two  hundred,  Irenteus  and  the  whole 
population  of  Lyons  were  put  to  death  by  the  Emperor 
Severus,  as  being  Christians.  In  the  absence  of  such  op- 
portunity as  I  could  wish  for  informing  myself  upon  the 
subject,  I  conjecture  that  this  slaughter  may  have  been  in 
connection  with  the  struggles  for  the  imperial  throne  be- 
tween  Albinus  and  Severus,  and  because  the  Christian  pop- 
ulation of  Lyons  may  have  been  unable  to  give  satisfisictory 
proof  of  their  loyalty  to  Severus,  in  consequence  of  their 
scrupling  to  offer  sacrifice  to  his  genius,  and  to  the  gods  of 
the  empire.  For  this  was  a  test  of  loyalty,  which  by  them 
was  regarded  as  an  idolatrous  act  la  this  slaughter,  it  is 
said  by  history  that  nearly  twenty  thousand  persons  were 
killed.  A  desolate,  ruined  place,  Lyons  was  no  longer  re- 
garded as  a  metropolis ;  and  it  was  abandoned  by  the  Ro- 
man governors,  who  went  elsewhere  to  reside.  Fifteen 
years  after  this  massacre  by  Severus,  the  Emperor  Cara- 
calla,  advancing  into  Gaul,  was  unwilling  to  stay  in  Lyons, 
and  passed  it  by  as  a  heap  of  rukis. 

Ruinous  no  doubt  it  was,  yet  probably  not  altogether 
mere  ruins.  For  the  market-place  was  yet  standing,  —  a 
building  which  indeed  so  continued  to  stand  till  the  year 
eight  hundred  and  forty,  when  it  fell  from  decay.    The 

19* 


222  LT0N8« 

temple  of  Augustus,  also,  was  left  untouched  by  the  ven- 
geance of  Severus;  and  indeed  forty  years  afterwards  is 
known,  from  Dion,  to  have  been  still  famous  on  account  of 
the  annual  games  connected  with  it,  and  which  no  doubt 
were  still. resorted  to  as  the  grand  festival  of  GkiuL  But  at 
the  time  to  which  this  historical  mention  refers,  there  were 
persons  living  who  lived  to  see  the  time  when  Bome  obeyed 
an  emperor  who  was  a  follower  of  the  cross. 

There  are  yet  remaining  some  interesting  memorials  of 
the  era  during  which  Christianity  and  healhenism  struggled 
together  in  Lyons,  —  memorials  of  the  patience,  the  endur- 
ance, the  faith,  through  which  ourselves  we  are  what  we  are 
in  Christ  Jesus.     At  the  top  of  the  mount  Fourvieres,  and  a 
little  back  from  the  brow,  is  the  church  of  St  Irenee.    Ac- 
cording to  a  tradition,  the  truth  of  which  I  suppose  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt,  this  church  is  Imilt  over  the 
spot  where  the  first  Christians  had  their  place  of  assembling 
together.     The  church  is  modem.     In  it  there  is  an  altar 
dedicated  to  St  Irenseus.     I  stood  in  front  of  it  with  feel- 
ings of  reverence  deep  and  pure.     But  soon  these  feelings 
were  a  little  disturbed  by  what  to  me  was  a  novelty  of  its 
kind.     It  was  a  document  printed  and  framed ;  and  this  is 
a  portion  of  it,  which  I  transcribed :  "  Paternally  attentive 
to  the  salvation  of  all  men,  we  enrich  sometimes,  from  our 
spiritual  treasure  of  Indulgences,  certain  sacred  places,  in 
order  to  make  the  souls  of  the  deceased  faithful  partake  of 
the  merits  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  sufiriages  of 
the  Saints,  who,  being  supplicated  for  them,  can  cause  them 
by  the  mercy  of  God  to  pass  from  the  pains  of  Purgatory 
to  everlasting  happiness.     Wishing  to  honor  by  a  special 
gift  the  church  of  St.  Irenseus,  close  by  the  walls  of  Lyons, 
we  direct  that  every  time  when  a  priest  of  any  order  shall 
celebrate  a  Mass  at  the  altar,  for  the  soul  of  any  faithful 


LYONS.  223 

who  departed  in  a  state  of  grace,  this  same  soul  shall  ohtain 
by  the  Indulgence  drawn  from  the  treasure  of  the  Church, 
that  it  shall  be  delivered  from  the  pains  of  Purgatory, 
through  the  merits  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  and  of  all  the  Saints.  And,  notwith- 
standing any  rules  to  the  contrary,  this  present  shall  stand 
for  ever. — Given  at  Rome,  1816." 

Underneath  the  church  is  a  crypt,  above  the  steps  for 
descending  into  which  is  an  inscription  to  this  effect :  "  This 
crypt,  dedicated  to  St.  Pothinus,  is  the  cradle  of  Christianity 
in  France.  He  was  martyred  in  the  year  one  hundred  and 
seventy-seven.  St.  IrensBus,  who  succeeded  him,  gathered 
the  Christians  together  in  this  crjpt.  He  converted  the 
whole  town.  He  was  martyred  in  the  year  two  hundred 
and  two ;  and  more  than  nineteen  thousand  persons  perished 
with  him."  In  this  inscription  it  is  added,  that  in  the  year 
fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-two  the  Calvinists  ravaged  the 
church,  but  that,  though  the  pillars  of  the  crypt  were  broken 
down,  the  vault  remained  standing.  This  church  of  St. 
Irenseus  was  an  occasion  of  special  indignation  to  the  Cal- 
vinists, probably  as  being  the  object  of  superstitious  pilgrim- 
ages. And  yet  these  followers  of  Calvin,  who  ordered  their 
faith  by  the  institutes,  would  probably  have  been  somewhat 
incomprehensible  to  the  early  Christians  of  Lyons,  at  least 
if  their  theological  opinions  are  to  be  inferred  at  all  from 
that  touching  letter  of  theirs  to  the  churches  of  Asia  and 
Phrygia,  —  a  letter  in  its  piety  so  simple,  though  so  ardent. 

In  the  lower  part  of  Lyons,  and  near  the  foot  of  the  mount 
Fourvieres  is  an  old  church,  underneath  which  are  said  to 
be  the  dungeons  in  which  St.  Pothinus  and  St.  Blandina 
were  imprisoned,  and  in  which  Pothinus  died.  It  was  the 
dusk  of  evening  when  I  was  conducted  to  this  church  by  a 
stranger,  from  whom  I  had  inquired  its  situation.     The 


234  RXTISIOX    OF  TEIE  KNGLISS  BIBLE. 

dtmrewere  open  siill ;  and  my  kindly  guide  caused 
to  be  procnred;  llicn,  lifting  a  tmii-door,  in  the  floor  of  what 
aeemed  to  me  to  be  the  ve,-itry,  lie  invited  ine  to  descend  by 
a  ladder.  Ib  this  manner  I  found  myself  standiag  aloBgside 
of  two  openings  into  very  low  and  narrow  cells.  It  is  saiil 
b;  a  better  authoriiy  than  I  nm,  that  in  these  dungeona  ara 
distinct  traces  of  lioman  work. 

These  holes  mny  or  may  not  be  what  it  is  claimed  that 
they  are.  Tet  in  tlie  church  above  certainly  are  remains  of 
what  was  once  the  glory  of  heathenism,  in  the  day  of  iti 
strength,  bnt  whioh  now  are  memorials  of  that  fwth  which 
overcomes  the  world  even  at  itn  sti^ngest  points.  These 
remains  are  four  gninite  pillars  supporting  the  vault  of  the 
church.  From  llie  nature  of  the  granite,  from  the  size  of 
the  pillars,  and  especially  from  their  shape,  they  ai-e  un- 
donbtedly  the  two  pillars  cut  iulo  four,  which  once  stood  in 
front  of  the  temple  of  Augustus,  the  site  of  which  is  closely 
adjacent  to  the  church. 

Such  is  the  history  of  ancient  Lyons. 


BEVISION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

There  are  evident  signs  of  a  growing  dedre  fi>r  an  un- 
proved translation  of  the  English  Scriptures.  It  is  now 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  Tfing  James's  Te^ 
sion  was  made ;  during  this  lime  there  have  been  many 
new  discoveries  in  the  reading  of  anrient  manuscripts ;  crit- 
ical skill  has  been  cultivated.  Biblical  learning  has.  advanced, 
numerous  errors  in  the  common  version  have  beea  detected, 


IE   EKaLISH  BLBLE.  225 

"•^a  to  ask,  Wliy  shonld  we  go  on  year  afler 

k  the  misiakea  made  two  aod  a  half  centu- 

Kloitld  ive  not  applj  the  best  knowledge 

ft  secure  a.  more  pure  copy  of  the  words 

tie  and  forcible  qnestioDs.     They  press 

1  they  will  press  harder  and  harder 

They  have  already  led  to  some 

Bid  action.    Many  in  this  country  are  in- 

^zation,  wUicli.  under  the  name  of  "  Bible 

p  behalf  of  this  object     It  may  prepare 

a  broader  scale,  and  more  worthy  of 

Ksupport.     In  England,  public  opinion 

||used.    Sermons  have  been  preached, 

,  tracts  have  been  widely  circu- 

i  entertained  that  a  commission  may 

Authority,  embracing  the  moat  learned 

I  who  may  reproduce  a  copy  of  the 

Ifaall  reflect  honor  upon  the  critical  skill 

^of  this  age. 

The  latest  evidence  of  interest  in  thia  subject  is  a  volume 
"rotn.  Rev.  Dr.  Beard  of  Manchester,  England,  entitled,  A 
Revised  English  BiUe  the  Want  of  the  Church  and  the 
Demand  of  the  Age.  It  comprisea  historical  notices  of  all 
English  translations,  particularly  of  the  authorized  version, 
with  criticisms  upon  numerous  texts  which  have  fared  iliy 
in  the  banda  of  the  translators.  The  book  is  a  fair  one,  of 
over  four  hundred  duodecimo  pages;  and  as  copies  of  it 
have  been  imported  by  the  American  Unitarian  Associa- 
tion, we  propose  to  give  a  brief  notice  of  its  contents. 

In  the  first  chapter  an  argument  is  drawn  from  the  im- 
mense drculation  of  the  Bible  at  the  present  day,  to  show 
the  importance  of  a  true  and  faithful  translation. 


226  KETiaiON   OF  THK  EHQUSH  BIBI^ 

"  Thirty  millions  eight  handled  and  stzty-tbTee  tboasand  nine 
hundred  ud  one  copiea  of  the  Bible,  either  in  whole  or  ia  put, 
have  been  put  into  circulation  bj  the  Britifih  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society.  In  this  gigantic  effort,  nearly  foui  millioDs  and  a  half 
pounds  sterling  have  been  expended.  The  oamber  Bent  forth  ia- 
cieaaes  at  the  rate  of  a  million  and  a  half  copiea  erery  year,  and  the 
inovenieDt  is  sustained  by  an  anDOKl  income  of  tventy-five  then- 
sand  poonda.  Into  one  handred  and  twentf-riz  langnagea,  or 
dialect*,  the  Society  hueaosed  the  Bible  to  be  tnuslated.  The 
diveraity  of  these  languages,  and  the  consequent  diSusion  of  the 
Scripture,  may  be  inferred  fcom  the  fact,  that,  in  running  uui  eye 
down  the  list,  we  pass  from  the  Gaelic  and  the  Mans  to  the  Ice- 
landic, the  Modem  Creek,  the  Muileta  Russ,  tlie  CiimeaD  Tartar, 
the  Kurdish,  the  Persic,  the  Sanscrit,  the  Bengali,  ttie  Sindhee, 
the  Puajabee,  the  Tamul,  the  Soli,  the  ChincEe,  the  Malay,  the 
Tahitian,  the  Berber,  the  Caffre,  the  Greenlandish,  the  Esqui- 
maux, the  Mohawk,  and  the  Mexican. 

"  While  the  Bible  has  thus  been  carried  to  the  most  distant  sad 
leant  caltared  shores  af  the  globe,  it  has  been  scattered  with  fuli 
htads,  as  the  sower  sows  broadcast  over  the  Held,  in  these  our 
highly  privileged  iiilands,  A  volume  which,  Sve  hundred  years 
ago,  would  have  cost  scores  of  pounds,  may  now  be  paichased 
for  a  shilling.  A  volume  which,  less  than  three  hnodivd  yeira 
ago,  was  wrested  from  the  hands  of  nn^thfnl  guardiaiu,  at  ths 
cost  of  the  best  blood  of  the  age,  is  now  peacefully  read  by  the 
Sunday  scholar,  and  quietly  soothes  the  last  honrs  of  the  aged 
cottager.  That  bock  which  not  so  long  since  priests  and  kings 
did  their  utmost  to  keep  out  of  the  bands  of  the  people,  is  now 
exposed  for  sale  on  the  humblest  book-stalls,  and  hawked  from 
village  to  village.  Nay,  when  it  cannot  be  sold  at  an  almost 
nominal  price,  it  is  ^ven  away,  and  sometimes  given  away  so 
profusely,  or  even  so  forced  ou  unwilling  hands,  as  to  abate,  if 
not  for  the  moment  destroy,  its  acceptablenesa  and  influence. 
What  a  change  presents  itself  to  the  imagination,  when  one  thinks 
of  the  first  beginnings  of  these  mighty  waters  by  which  now  al- 
most the  whole  earth  is  covered !     Moses,  in  one  of  the  deep 


BETISION   OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE.  227 

lavioes  of  the  secluded  mountains  of  Sinai,  utters  a  few  words 
which  are  echoed  and  re-echoed  ten  thousand  times,  from  the 
Jordan  to  the  Thames,  from  the  Thames  to  the  Indus,  from  the 
lodas  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  from  the  St  Lawrence  to  the 
Orinoko.  The  language  of  the  Psalmist  finds  an  illustration  which 
could  never  have  been  anticipated  of  old ;  for  like  the  sun  which 
declares  the'  glory  of  Grod,  the  Scriptures  that  contain  His  will 
and  rereal  His  grace  are  *  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and 
their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  there  is  nothing  hid  from 
the  heat  thereof.' "  —  pp.  3,  3. 

In  yiew  of  this  vast  circulation,  and  of  the  influence  it 
must  have  upon  millions  of  minds,  few  questions  can  be 
more  important  than  this,  What  Bible  shall  be  sent  abroad  ? 
"  Shall  it  be  God's  own  Bible,  or  shall  it  be  a  Bible  alloyed 
with  human  errors  ?  " 

This  question  leads  to  an  historical  view  of  the  successive 
English  translations  of  the  Scriptures.    Starting  with  a  brief 
notice  of  the  early  attempts  to  render  the  sacred  writings 
into  Saxon,  with  a  reference  also  to  Bede  and  Wiclif,  our 
author  comes  down  to  the  Father  of  English  Scriptures, 
William  Tyndale.    Dr.  Beard  dwells   with  interest  upon 
Tyndale's  learning,  independence,  terse  Saxon  idiom,  and, 
herein  following  other  writers  on  this  subject,  traces  back 
to  him  many  of  the  excellences  of  our  common  version. 
To  Tyndale's  succeeded  Coverdale's,  Matthew's,  Tavemer's, 
and  Cranmer's  Bible,  and  these  were  followed  by  the  Gene- 
va and  the  Bishops'  Bible.     The  merits  of  these  are  passed 
in  brief  review,  and  instances  are  pointed  out  where  the 
sectarian  and  dogmatic  influences  of  the  men  or  of  the  times 
affected  the  choice  of  phrases  and  words. 

We  soon  come  to  chapter  fourth,  —  "  Critical  History  of 
the  Origin  of  King  James's  Version."  The  causes  which 
led  the  king  to  authorize  a  new  translation,  and  the  steps 


228  BsnsiOK  op  the  knslish  bible. 

he  adopted  to  secure  aa  accurate  a  TCrsion  as  the  age  could 
furnish,  are  here  described.  We  need  not  dwell  on  these 
points,  as  they  are  familiar  to  most  readers.  We  are  glad 
to  see  that  no  desire  to  strengthen  his  argument  leads  Dr. 
Beard  to  disparage  the  merits  of  King  James's  translators. 

"  They  were  ID  genenl  good  acboUrs;  they  ma;  be  described 
u  the  best  scholars  of  their  ag&  Their  age,  too,  may  be  justly 
spoken  of  as  a  learned  age.  Hence  we  may  say  of  the  tianslaiora, 
that  ihey  were  the  most  learned  men  or  a  learned  age.  Spedallf 
were  ihey  skilled  in  Biblical  learning,  t'ur  all  the  great  inieiesls 
of  Bocieiy  centred  then  in  religion,  and  lime  enough  hid  elapsed, 
from  the  reyival  of  letters,  to  allow  of  the  culiivaiion  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  scholarship.  Nor  leKs  is  it  true  ihat  in  theii  day  the  Eng- 
lish language,  formed  by  Chi.uoer,  e.-ipaiidcd  and  refined  by  Spen- 
ser, and  (Danlded  into  almost  ill  Airins  b;  Shakespeare,  had  leached 
a  degree  of  varied  excellence  difficnlt  lo  surpass.  In  producing 
this  result,  Tyndale  had  a  largo  share,  so  far  at  least  as  the  lange 
of  Biblical  phraseology  extends.  Owing  to  this  fncl.  King  James's 
dinnes  foand  the  dictioo  proper  fur  Iheir  work  ready  to  iIieIi 
bands,  and  their  merit  here  lies  iti  ibia,  that  ihey  did  not  yield  [o 
the  Latinizing  tendency  of  the  day,  and  mar  Tyndale's  racy  Eng- 
lish with  the  English  of  the  schools." — pp.  85,  86. 

If  such  was  the  character  of  King  James's  translators, 
where  is  the  necessity,  it  may  be  asked,  of  revising  Aeir 
work?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  found  by  a  review 
of  the  progress  which  Biblical  knowledge  has  made  during 
the  last  two  centuries.  Accordingly,  in  chapter  fifth,  Dr. 
Beard  takes  an  elaborate  surrey  of  the  critical  apparatus 
possessed  by  scholars  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  and 
compares  it  with  the  resources  at  command  at  the  present 
day.  This  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  convincing  portJ<His 
of  the  book.  The  argument  is  presented  with  much  ful- 
ness of  details,  and  with  all  respect  to  the  translators  of 
1610.     It  was  no  fault  of  theirs  that  they  could  not  use 


BEYISION   OF  THE   ENGLISH  BIBLE.  229 

the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages  acquired 
since  their  daj.  It  was  no  fault  of  theirs  that  thej  could  not 
consult  the  large  number  of  manuscripts  which  have  of  late 
years  been  brought  to  light  It  was  no  fault  of  theirs  that 
thej  knew  nothing  of  the  important  philological  discoveries 
of  the  last  century ;  that  they  could  not  avail  themselves 
of  the  intelligence  obtained  by  modem  missionaries  and 
travellers,  who  have  so  greatly  enlarged  our  acquaintance 
with  Oriental  archaeology  and  natural  history  ;  that  they 
could  not  refer  to  the  works  of  Mill,  Wetstein,  Griesbach, 
Lachmann,  Tischendorf,  Tregelles.  A  few  paragraphs  at 
the  end  of  this  chapter  present,  in  a  condensed  form,  the 
results  of  the  investigation. 

"  There  are  at  present,  at  the  service  of  criticism,  forty-one 
imcial  manuscripts,  or  manuscripts  written  in  capital  letters ;  and 
being  so  written,  known  to  be  the  oldest.  These  go  back  in  age 
firom  the  tenth  to  the  fourth  century.  Among  them,  two  alone, 
namely,  the  Alexandrine  and  the  Vatican,  surpass  in  valae  all  the 
anthorities  accessible  to  the  Complutensian  and  other  editors  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  Of  manuscripts  written  in  the  smaller 
character,  and  extending  in  age  from  the  ninth  to  the  sixteenth 
century  (a.  d.),  there  are  for  the  Gospels  five  hundred.  Of  Evan- 
gelistaries, or  Readings  selected  from  the  Gospels  for  the  Church 
Service,  there  are  also  above  two  hundred  ;  of  which  at  least  sixty 
m  the  larger  letter  were  written  in  the  period  between  the  tenth 
and  the  twelfth  century.  For  the  Acts  and  the  Catholic  Epistles, 
there  are  more  than  two  hundred  ;  for  Paul's  Epistles,  about  three 
hundred ;  for  the  Revelation,  about  one  hundred,  —  written  in  the 
smaller  hand ;  while  of  Readings  from  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles, 
more  than  sixty  are  known,  some  of  which  have  the  tenth  century 
for  their  date.  It  seems  almost  incredible,  that,  so  far  as  the  un- 
critical reader  of  the  New  Testament  is  concerned,  all  this  won- 
drously  rich  gift  of  Divine  Providence,  designed  for  the  illustration 
of  the  word  of  life,  should  be  as  if  it  were  not. 

"  The  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  in  the  days  of  James  I. 

VOL.  V.  NO.  II.  20 


230  BBVISION   OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

was  rudimental  and  imperfect,  as  compared  with  the  knowledge 
of  that  language  now  possessed  by  the  best  scholars.    £ven  the 
words  were  then  less  exactly  and  less  fully  understood  than  they 
are  now.    The  laws  of  Greek  structure  were  still  more  imperfect- 
ly apprehended.     The  principles  of  interpretation  existed  but  in 
embryo,  though  there  was  no  lack  of  erroneous  notions.    It  re- 
quired the  lapse  of  two   centuries  to  develop  and  establish  the 
rights  of  grammar,  logic,  and  history  in  the  science  of  exegesis. 
Dogma  ruled  the  school,  as  well  as  the  church,  determined  read- 
ings, and  interpreted  passages.    Not  what  was  true,  but  what  was 
traditionary,  was  law  with  the  professor  no  less  than  the  preacher. 
It  was  only  after  the  successful  prosecution  of  philological  studies 
in  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  by  which  the  last  century  has 
been  specially  distinguished,  first  in  England  and  then  in  Germany, 
that  the  true  doctrines  of  Scriptural  exposition  were  developed  and 
applied ;  indeed,  not  until  European  learning  had  received  the 
light  in  which  it  now  flourishes,  coming  from  the  new  discoveries 
in  the  Sanscrit  and  other  Oriental  languages,  viewed  not  in  them- 
selves only,  but  as  indicative  of  certain  great  linguistical  relations, 
that  the  best  scholars  were  in  a  condition  to  interpret  the  New 
Testament  in  a  manner  fully  worthy  of  its  infinite  value.    We 
might,  indeed,  refer  to  Oriental  history,  to  antiquities,  to  natural 
history,  to  science,  to  voyages  and  travels,  and  declare  that  by  as 
much  as  the  foremost  knowledge  in  each  surpasses  at  the  present 
day  the  foremost  knowledge  possessed  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  by  so  much  does  the  well-instructed  translator  who  now  turns 
the  New  Testament  into  English  excel  in  resources  and  oppor- 
tunity the  well-instructed  translator  of  the  times  of  James. 
..... 

*'  We  ask  whether  all  the  Greek  scholarship,  and  all  the  New 
Testament  learning,  gained  during  the  last  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
—  a  period  of  most  extraordinary  mental  activity,  and  a  period 
equally  memorable  for  progress  in  sacred  learning, — whether  the 
labors  of  Grotius,  Semler,  Emesti,  Matthai,  Person,  Bentley, 
Winer,  and  very  many  others,  are  to  pass  for  nothing,  so  far  as 
the  people's  Bible  is  concerned?    Do  not  our  English  scholars 


REViaiOM   OF  IHS  SKCILISH  BIBLE.  231 


bestow  the  greatest  c«ra  on  edition*  of  the  classics,  in  order  to 

reniier  the  text  as  puro  as  possible?  oc  ralher,  do  they  not  import 
from  Germany  edilions  more  pure  and  every  way  beutr  than  iheir 
own!  If  ihey judge  it  deairable  to  read  a  Greek  comedy  or  a 
Homm  satire  aa  neatly  3s  possible  in  the  very  words  of  iheir  re- 
Bpective  authors,  how  can  they  think  it  otherwise  ihao  most  im- 
portant that  ihey  IhcmaEWes,  that  the  people  of  England,  that 
persons  speaking  English  ail  over  the  world,  should  read  the 
words  of  '  holy  men  of  old  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God '  as  nearly  as 
possible  as  those  words  were  altered,  and  aa  they  have  been  hand- 
ed dowu  10  us  by  the  special  care  of  Divine  Providence  I  Yel  this 
theii  privilege  and  their  right  ttiey  eaiinot  fully  eojoy,  unless  the 
English  New  Tefitament  is  now  once  again  snbjecled  to  a  careful 
and  syslematic  revision."  —  pp.  186- J90. 

But  the  great  question,  ailer  all,  with  which  we  are  chiefly 
concerned  is,  What  are  the  specific  improyemenls  thai  need 
to  be  made?  Accordingly  the  last  chapter  of  llie  hook, 
constiluting  about  one  third  of  the  entire  work,  enumerates 
&  list  of  the  pas^^ages  that  demand  revision.  Tlieae  are 
named  only  as  a  small  part  of  the  corrections  whicli  aro  re- 
quired, and  they  are  staled  at  some  length  in  the  hope  that 
they  may  furnish  aid  to  the  Biblical  student  until  the  time 
for  an  authorized  revision  shall  come. 

Dr.  Beard  divides  his  corrections  into  two  elasses,  —  those 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  tho^e  in  the  New.  The  former 
we  vrill  wholly  pass  by,  merely  remarking  that  we  have  ob- 
served with  pleasure  the  testimony  he  bears  to  the  exact 
leamiDg  and  correct  translation  of  Professor  Noyes  of  the 
Cambzidge  Divinity  School  The  reference  affords  us  an 
opportDoity  to  add,  that  his  translations  of  Job,  the  Psalms, 
and  Ihe  Prophets  have  often  received  the  warmest  approval 
from  distinguished  scholars,  and  will  probably  attract  wider 
attention,  and  receive  juster  appreciation,  as  public  interest 
d  9n  the  subject  of  Biblical  revision. 


282  BEYISION  OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

In  regard  to  critical  emendations  of  the  New  Testament, 
Dr.  Beard  enumerates  four  or  five  hundred  texts   where 
corrections  are  demanded.     He  takes  such  commentators  as 
Campbell,  Newcome,  Tumbull,  Jowett,  Wakefield,  Norton, 
Conybeare  and  Howson,  and  Scholefield,  and  marks  the  cases 
where  thej  have  appeared  to  bring  out  the  meaning  of  the 
original  with  superior  exactness  and  force.     The  above  is  a 
list  of  the  writers  chiefly  quoted.     Every  critical  Biblical 
scholar  will  see  at  once  how  meagre  is  the  list,  and  how 
greatly  enlarged  might  be  the  number  of  emendations  if  Dr. 
Beard  had  consulted  other  commentators  of  a  wider  repu- 
tation for  profound  scholarship.     But  we  suppose  that  he 
had  a  particular  object  in  view  in  selecting  this  list  of  crit- 
ics.    He  doubtless  confined  himself  to  names  that  would 
probably  be  known  to  his  readers,  —  English  commentators, 
each  enjoying  some  reputation  in  particular  drcles,  —  the 
argument  being,  that  even  such  furnish  a  sufficient  number 
of  cases  of  obvious  emendation  of  the  Scriptures  to  demand 
a  general  revision  of  our  sacred  books.     For  the  same  rea- 
son, we  suppose,  he  has  avoided,  for  the  most  part,  all  learned 
comment  on  the  original  languages,  and  has  presented  the 
cited  corrections  in  English,  that  the  common  reader  may 
see  at  once  the  difference  between  the  errors  and  mistakes 
of  the  common  version  and  the  true  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures.    The  whole  furnishes  a  curious  and  instructive  cata- 
logue.    We  are  free  to  say,  that  it  has  lefl  a  much  stronger 
impression  on  our  mind  than  we  ever  had  before  of  the  im- 
portance of  an  immediate  Biblical  revision ;  and  until  this 
work  is  accomplished,  many  may  prize  this  extended  list  of 
emendations  as  a  valuable  help  in  knowing  what  the  true 
Bible  is. 

We  cannot  close  this  notice  without  returning  our  thanks 
to  Dr.  Beard  for  this  timely  book ;  and  our  j;hanks  are  all 


REVISION   OF  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE.  233 

the  more  hearty  for  the  good  sense  and  good  taste  which 
define  and  limit  the  object  for  which  he  so  earnestly  pleads. 
It  is  not  a  new  translation  that  he  seeks.  He  would  not 
give  up  the  venerable  and  endeared  phraseology  of  the  Bi- 
ble. Herein  we  agree  with  him.  The  precious  old  words 
tiiat  we  learned  in  our  mother's  lap,  which  have  become 
household  words  all  the  world  over, — never  may  we  see 
them  needlessly  changed.  It  is  the  error  of  nearly  all  para- 
phrasers  and  translators  that  they  depart  from  the  common 
versicm  too  much.  Mr.  Norton  has  greatly  offended  the  ears 
and  feelings  of  those  who  respect  his  learning  and  scholar- 
ship. It  is  only  here  and  there  a  text  that  requires  a  verbal 
alteration ;  and  as  long  as  we  hold  on  and  repeat  ten  thou- 
sand times  a  dearly  seen  mistranslation,  do  we  not  expose 
ourselves  to  the  doom  pronounced  against  those  who  ''  add 
to  the  words  of  this  book  "?  As  Unitarians  we  have  noth- 
ing to  fear,  but  have  everything  to  gain,  by  a  correct  revis- 
ion. The  text  oi  the  three  heavenly  witnesses  (1  John 
V.  7)  will  be  expunged ;  a  rendering  will  be  given  to  the 
first  verse  ci  John's  Gk)spel  which  will  be  wholly  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  doctrine  of  the  Deity  of  Christ,  so  that  it 
will  read,  3i  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
tcith  God,  and  a  god  was  the  Word;  while  the  true  trans- 
lation of  the  phrase  rendered  Holy  Ghost  will  take  away  all 
seeming  argument  to  show  that  it  denotes  a  third  person  in 
a  Trinity.  If  a  revision  of  the  Bible  promised  to  buttress 
up  Orthodoxy  as  much  as  it  must  inevitably  strengthen  Uni- 
tarianism,  it  would  not  have  been  delayed  till  this  day. 


20* 


234  THB  UNITABIAXS   OF  TRANSTLTAKIA. 


THE  UNITARIANS  OF  TRANSYLVANIA. 

We  had  confidentlj  expected  that  this  number  of  the 
Journal  would  report  some  generous  action  of  the  American 
churches  in  behalf  of  our  brethren  in  Transylvania.  A 
plan  to  secure  this  action  had  been  carefully  matured 
and  adopted  by  the  Executive  Committee,  a  circular  to  the 
churches  was  drawn  up,  a  day  for  a  general  and  simul- 
taneous contribution  was  named,  and  we  had  every  rea- 
son to  believe  there  would  be  a  fraternal  response  to  the 
call.  But  the  whole  measure  has  been  taken  out  of  our 
hands  by  that  financial  hurricane  which  has  swept  through 
our  land,  and  prostrated  so  many  enterprises  and  hopes. 
Accordingly,  we  are  left  with  nothing  to  report  beyond  a 
brief  account  of  the  present  posture  of  the  appeal,  together 
with  a  few  additional  documents,  bearing  upon  the  case, 
which  have  since  come  to  hand.  We  do  not  know  whether, 
in  case  some  returning  prosperity  in  the  business  of  our 
country  should  encourage  a  call  for  a  contribution  next 
spring  or  summer,  aid  obtained  then  would  be  too  late  to  be 
of  any  assistance  to  our  brethren  in  Eastern  Europe.  This 
is  a  point  on  which  we  shall  now  seek  for  information. 

It  may  be  remembered,  that,  in  response  to.  an  allusion  in 
the  last  Annual  Report  of  the  Executive  Committee,  ear- 
nest words  of  sympathy  for  the  Unitarians  of  Transylvania 
were  uttered  by  Rev.  Drs.  Gannett,  Bellows,  Osgood, 
Hedge,  and  others,  which  were  followed  by  a  vote  com- 
mending the  subject  to  the  special  consideration  of  the 
Board. 

It  was  believed  to  be  important  to  obtain  further  infor- 
mation, especially  as  to  the  probable  safety  of  funds  raised  for 
the  Unitarians  of  Transylvania,  and  whether  there  might 


THE  UKITABIANS  OF  9&AH8TLTANIA.  235 

not  be  a  repetition  of  Austrian  interference  and  exaction. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Assodation  opened  a  correspondence 
with  several  gentlemen  in  England,  firom  whom  he  learned 
that  there  was  a  great  degree  of  confidence  that  the  specific 
object  sought  by  the  appeal  to  English  and  American  Unita- 
rians would  be  secured  and  guaranteed,  if  the  requisite 
sums  were  paid.  Upon  the  strength  of  this  confidence  the 
English  Unitarians  have  raised  about  six  thousand  dollars. 

Meanwhile  the  heats  of  summer  had  arrived,  and  the 
members  of  our  city  dmrdies  were  absent  firom  home.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Board  in  September,  the  following  let- 
ters were  read,  and  it  was  unanimously  voted  that  the  last 
Sunday  in  Oc^ber  be  designated  as  a  day  for  a  general 
contributicm  in  aid  of  the  Unitarians  in  Hungary.  Our 
readers  will  r^nember  that,  before  that  Sunday,  came  the 
sndd^i  and  overwhelming  financial  panic,  so  that  the  com- 
mittee felt  compelled  to  delay  indefinitely  the  appeal  they 
had  proposed. 

The  letters  to  which  we  referred,  are  one  from  Eev.  Ed- 
ward Tagart  of  London,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association,  one  from  Mr.  John 
Fi^et  of  Elausenburg,  and  one  in  Latin  from  Professors 
Eriza  and  Kovacsig,  of  the  Unitarian  College  in  that  place. 

Mr.  Tagart  says :  — 

"  I  have  great  pleasore  in  forwarding  to  you  the  accompanying 
letters  from  Klausenburg.  They  will  deeply  interest  your  Asso- 
ciation, I  doubt  not.  Mr.  John  Paget  was  a  fellow-student  of 
mine  at  the  College  at  York,  and  my  friendly  recollections  of  him 
and  confidence  in  him  make  me  feel  a  peculiar  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject of  his  appeal.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  I  conceive,  but  that 
the  existence  of  Unitarian  institutions  in  Hungary,  in  a  flourish- 
ing and  influential  condition,  must  prove  an  element  of  incalcula- 
ble importance  for  the  promotion  of  enlightened  religion  and  civil- 
ization in  Eastern  Europe." 


886  THB  UiriTASIANS   OF  TBANSTLYANIA. 

Mr.  Pagef 8  letter  is  here  printed  entire :  — 

«  Klausenburg,  July  20,  1857. 

<*To  Rbv.  Dr.  Miles,  Secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Assa 
dation :  — 

«  Mt  dear  Sir  :  —  I  have  been  requested  by  the  Consistor 
of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Transylvania  to  forward  to  you  th 
enclosed  letter,  and  at  the  same  time  to  address  yon  myself  in  fui 
therance  of  the  request  which  that  letter  contains.  It  is  perhap 
necessary,  before  proceeding  further,  to  say  that,  although  bon 
and  bred  an  Englishman,  I  have  been  for  the  last  twmty  year 
married  and  settled  in  Transylvania,  and  am  ther^re  necessaril; 
well  acquainted  with  the  afiairs  of  the  Transylvanian  Unitarians 
It  is  in  consequence  of  these  circnmstances  that  I  have  been  cho 
sen  as  the  medium  of  communication  between  them  and  thei: 
brethren  in  England  and  America.  They  are  at  the  present  mo 
ment  passing  through  a  crisis  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  ow 
in  which  your  assistance  may  aid  in  protecting  their  independence 
and  securing  their  future  prosperity. 

*<  Since  the  revolution  of  1848,  the  Austrian  government,  in  pur- 
suance of  a  sjHBtem  of  centralization  now  first  introduced  into 
Hungary  and  Transylvania,  has  taken  the  superintendence  of  all 
schools  and  colleges  into  its  own  hands.    As  the  Protestants  of 
all  creeds  have  hitherto  supported  their  schools  entirely  from 
their  own  resources,  derived  either  from  foundations  or  voluntary 
contributions,  they  have  insisted  on  their  right  to  retain  the  dispo- 
sition of  those  funds,  and  consequently  the  nomination  of  the 
Professors  who  are  paid  from  them.    The  government  has  recog- 
nized this  right,  but  still  insists  on  the  adoption  in  all  these 
schools  of  the  Austrian  system  of  education,  and  on  the  support 
of  an  equal  number  of  Professors,  and  on  an  equal  scale  of  pay- 
ment, with  the  schools  in  Austria. 

**  This  change  calls  both  for  a  great  increase  in  the  numbers  of 
teachers,  and  a  considerable  augmentation  of  their  salary.  Should 
not  the  necessary  amount  of  revenue  be  assured,  either  on  capital 


THE   CKITABIAHa    OP  TRUfBTLVASIA.  237 

or  Other  good  security,  either  some  of  tbe  echoola  must  be  given 
up  that  oDe  nay  lemsiD,  or  Ihey  must  be  reduced  to  the  rank  of 
priTate  schools,  and  thus  lose  the  right  of  granting  degrees  or  cer- 
tificates essential  to  the  practice  of  the  learned  professioDS,  as  well 
KB  the  attainment  of  civil  office. 

"  The  Unitarian  schools  at  present  exbting  in  TransjlTonla  ate 
the  College  or  Upper  Gymnaaiuro  in  Klausenborg,  and  two  pre- 
paratory schools  or  Under  Gymnasia  in  Thoida  and  Keresztur.  It 
is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  all  these  should  be  main- 
tuned,  —  the  College  in  Elaosenburg  aa  the  theological  seminary 
and  a  place  of  education  for  those  deseed  for  the  professions,  itc, 
and  the  schools  of  Thorda  and  Keresztur  because  chiefly  frequented 
by  the  Szeklera,  whom  the  Catholic  bishop  is  unceasing  in  bis  en- 
deavors to  win  over  to  the  Catholic  Church.  It  is  among  the 
Szeklera  that  Unitaiianism  has  its  firmest  strong-holds.  Tlicae 
hardy  and  simple  mounlaineets,  ihtoughoul  all  the  persecutions  to 
which  ihey  have  been  exposed,  have  maintained  their  faith  with  a 
constancy  worthy  not  only  of  udmiration,  but  of  sympathy  and  sup- 
port. Nowhere  has  the  vasl  importance  of  Ibe  present  crisis  been 
more  thoroughly  full  than  among  the  Szeklers;  and  to  those  who 
know  the  poverty  of  the  country,  the  result  of  their  efforts  to  meet 
il  will  appear  almost  incredible.  A  short  statement  of  !lie  former 
stale  of  the  finances  of  the  Unitarian  schools  as  they  wero  before 
the  present  changes,  and  the  amount  of  the  subscriptions  already 
received  to  meet  these  charges,  will  best  enable  you  to  judge  of 
the  true  stale  of  the  ease.  This  aialement,  I  may  remark,  is  re- 
duced from  a  more  detailed  one  furnished  me  by  direction  of  the 
Consistory. 

"The  fended  properly  of  the  Transylvanian  Unitarians  has 
hitherto  amounled  to  54,988  F.  C.  M,,»  which,  at  six  per  cent 
(the  legal  intereat  up  to  1850,  and  still  so  for  morlgages  con- 
tracted bEfora  that  period),  amounis  lo  3,299  F.  C.  M. 

"  From  this  sum  the  following  paymeals  had  lo  be  made  :  — 

*  Tbe  florin  in  ConTenUoos  Miinze  smoimU,  as  near  as  possible,  to 


288  THB  UNITABIAMS  OF  TRAN8TLYAKIA. 

F.C 

1.  The  Bishop^s  salary, 

S.    One  Professor  in  Klausenburg,  without  lodgings     . 

3.  Four  Professors  at  300  f.  each,  with  lodging,    .         .  1 

4.  The  two  Rectors  of  Thorda  and  Kere8ztur,at250  f. 

each,  with  lodging, 

5.  Twenty  masters,  mostly  upper  students  or  theological 

candidates,  waiting  for  churches,  at  40  F.  C.  M.,  each, 

6.  Cashier, 

7.  Exacter,  Secretaries,  &c., 

8.  Expenses  of  Consistory, 

4 

"  The  expenses  of  repairs  in  the  College,  as  well  as  of  ap] 
tus,  fuel,  &o.,  are  not  included,  because  they  were  proYided  fc 
a  small  tax  paid  by  the  students  for  their  College  rooms.  T 
was  thus  every  year  a  deficit  of  1,500  F.  C.  M.  which  was  pron 
for  by  annual  collections ;  but  these  formed  a  very  uncertain 
▼ariable  resource,  and  not  such  as  would  be  accepted  by  the  ^ 
trian  government  as  good  security.  Even  therefore  with  the 
mer  number  of  Professors  and  their  meagre  salaries,  some 
scription  would  have  been  necessary,  although  nothing  requi 
foreign  assistance.  But  according  to  the  present  system  the 
nual  expense  will  amount  to  13,400,  or  nearly  three  times  wh 
formerly  was.  The  Upper  Gymnasium  requires  twelve  Profea 
and  the  Under  six  each, — the  salary  of  Director  being  800  F.  C 
and  that  of  Ordinary  Professor  600  F.  C.  M. 

**  To  meet  this  exigency,  the  Upper  Consistory,  at  a  meetin 
Klausenburg,  in  August,  1856,  determined  to  make  an  earnest 
on  the  Unitarians  throughout  every  part  of  the  country  to  subsc 
liberally  for  the  support  of  their  schools.  The  invitation  was 
with  a  zeal  and  alacrity  which  nothing  but  a  stern  convicti( 
impending  danger  could  have  produced.  From  individuals  a 
of  54,000  F.  C.  M.  has  already  been  collected  ;  and  from  the  cl 
and  parishes  bonds  for  the  yearly  payment  of  3,900  F.C.  M.,  w 
is  equal  to  a  capital  ot  78,000  F.  C.  M.    To  this  may  be  a( 


THB   iraiTARIANS   OF   TEAKaTLTANlA.  2S9 

10,000  F.  C.  M.,  whiuh  will  be  paid  this  year,  irom  the  AogdHti- 
uoTica  fuod,*  so  that  the  whole  account  will  stapd  thus: — 

F,  C  M. 

From  old  fund  at  aiz  per  cent, 3,309 

FTOm  10,000  AugustinoTics,  fire  pei  cent,        .        .  SOO 

From  54,000  at  hve  per  cent,  new  capital,    .        .        .    S,700 
From  paii«hee  and  clergy, 3,900 

10,399 
"From  thia  may  be  dedacled  1,390  for  the  lo«a  of  one  per  cent 
on  the  old  fund,  as  the  HKMIgagea  are  paid,  and  (6t  some  lossea  on 
the  payment  of  the  parish  aabscriptions,  so  that  the  BTHilable  Bom 
may  be  stated  as  a  clear  rerenne  of  9,000  F.  C.  M. ,  leaving  a  defi- 
cit of  4,400  F.  C.  M.  yearly. 

"  It  is  to  aid  ihem  in  supplying  this  deficit  that  they  now  call  on 
their  brethren  of  England  and  America  for  aBBislance,  They  do 
not  come  to  you  becanse  unwilling  to  put  Iheir  own  shnulders  to 
the  wheel,  or  they  would  find  no  advocate  io  me.  They  have  ex- 
erted Ihemselvea  nobly,  bat  the  country,  always  poor,  has  not  yet 
recovered  from  the  devastations  of  the  Revolution,  and  it  auffen 
under  the  Austrian  government  from  an  amount  of  taxation  greater 
than  that  of  any  country  in  Europe,  in  proportion  to  its  rcsoarces. 
"  On  the  very  verge  of  European  civilization,  almost  of  Chris- 
tianity itself,  alone  on  the  continent  of  Europe  in  the  profeaaion 
of  the  simple  and  pure  doctrines  of  Unitarian  ism,  they  have  none 
to  look  to  for  sympathy  and  support,  save  their  co-religionista  of 
the  Anglo-Sason  race  in  England  and  America,  The  emergency 
is  great,  their  means  to  meet  it  are  exhausted,  ihKir  pli'a  lor  aid  is 
well  founded,  and  I  feel  sure  it  will  meet  with  a  worthy  response 
tatm  those  to  whom  they  always  fondly  look  as  friends  and  breih- 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

"  John  PiGKT." 

*  Paul  Angastinovics  bequeathed  an  estate  to  the  Unitarian  College 
on  condiidon  that  the  tevenne  should  be  capitalized,  and  only  given 
over  to  thegeneral  fund  as  it  amounted  to  anmsof  10,000  F.  CM.  The 
second  of  these  sums  will  be  paid  into  the  general  fond  this  year. 


240  THE   UNITARIANS   OF  TBANSTLYANIA. 

The  letter  referred  to  by  Mr.  Paget  has  been  translate^ 
from  the  Latin,  and  is  as  follows :  — 

[Translation.] 

"  To  our  Unitarian  Brethren  in  America^  most  beloved  in  the  Lort. 
Crreeting  ! 

**  The  religion  of  the  Unitarians  in  Transylvania  having,  fc 
the  last  three  generations,  been  protected  by  public  law,  and  bee 
made  the  subject  of  public  legislation  by  the  state,  notwithstandia 
various  reverses  and  many  revolutions  in  civil  afiairs,  still  exisi 
at  the  present  day,  conscious  of  having  striven  to  the  utmost  of  il 
ability  in  the  past,  and  cherishing  the  hope  of  better  things  in  th 
future. 

"  Embracing  one  hundred  and  six  churches,  which  number  fifl 
thousand  attendants,  we  have  our  own  elementary  schools  and  acad 
emies  in  the  towns  Thorda  and  Su^kely-Keresztdr,  and  a  college 
with  a  theological  seminary  attached  to  it  at  Klausenburg  (Clao- 
diopolis),  where  also  resides  the  Bishop  or  Superintendent,  and 
the  Consistory,  who  have  the  oversight  of  its  ecclesiastical  and  lit- 
erary affairs. 

**  The  professors  of  this  faith  aim  to  direct  all  their  studies  to 
the  one  end  of  searching  for  and  endeavoring  to  diffuse  that  saying 
truth  which  it  concerns  all  to  know,  which  conduces  to  solid  piety* 
to  individual  salvation,  and  to  universal  peace  and  harmony.  Hold- 
ing fast  this  purpose,  they  have  always,  alike  in  prosperity  and  in 
adversity,  publicly  contributed  with  the  greatest  zeal  the  means  for 
sustaining  religion  and  their  own  literary  institutions ;  and  hence 
they  have  never  been  without  a  public  fund,  amply  sufficient  to 
cover  the  expenditures  incident  to  the  support  of  religion  and  their 
schools.  In  consequence  of  the  events  of  the  last  few  years,  how- 
ever, these  expenditures  have  so  increased,  that  eighteen,  or,  at 
the  lowest  estimate,  fifteen  thousand  florins  (that  is,  from  nine  thou- 
sand to  seventy-five  hundred  dollars)  are  imperatively  demanded  for 
their  annual  use. 

*'  The  churches,  with  their  ministers  and  assistants,  and  indi- 
vidual members  of  our  fraternity,  seeing  the  exigencies  of  the  times 
and  circumstances,  promptly  met  together  for  the  purpose  of  fur- 


THB   UHITASUMS   OF  TBAMBTITAXIA.  211 

niahing'  timely  relief  to  onr  religions  eBtabliabmeuM,  which  were 
BO  greatly  in  need  of  aid ;  and  within  a  yeu  they  haTs  iocreased 
the  ezistiog  fiind  ooe  hundred  and  forty-foar  thoaeaad  fiorins  (oi 
oeventy-two  thoDBand  dollars),  and  have  thna  eitafaliihed  an  annual 
lef  enne  amoaatin;  to  ten  thooaand  floTioa  (or  £ve  tbouaand  dol- 
lars), for  the  promatian  of  religion  and  education  ;  bnt,  exhausted 
by  numerouB  embarrasBmenls,  they  ate  unable   at  present  to  do 

"  Id  tbia  poalure  ofaSaira,  whicb  is  now  more  critical,  and  which 
admits  of  no  delay,  there  is  urgent  need  of  help  ;  and  we  appeal  to 
you,  beloved  brethren  in  the  Lord,  who  hare  been  bleaaed  with  a 
larger  measure  of  prosperity,  induced  by  the  confident  expcciatioa 
that  you  will  not  refuse  to  succor,  according  to  your  meana,  the 
church  of  Unitariana  in  Transylvania,  which,  amidst  various  per- 
ils, ia  placed  on  the  exircmc  verge  of  European  civilizatioii,  and 
adheres  with  all  ita  heart  lo  those  principles  which  tend  to  the 
benefit  and  impiovemenl  of  the  whole  human  race. 

"We  therefore  most  earnestly  entreat  you,  do  not  disdain  to 
assist  your  brethren  in  Transylvania,  who  are  atrugjiling  with  the 
difficultiesof  providing  the  meansof  subsistence  ;  but  sendns  some 
charilable  aid  through  such  ways  and  meatia  as  are  best  known  to 
yourselves  ;  and  be  pleased  to  ascribe  our  application,  not  lo  our 
bold^el^s,  but  to  the  confidence  and  affection  with  which  we  are 
drawn  to  yoo,  and  with  which  we  adhere,  in  the  most  steadfast 
faith,  to  the  same  religion  as  yourselves,     Farewell. 

"  Dated  at  Klausenburg,  in  the  Large  Principality  of  Tranayl- 
TBnia,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  June,  in  the  year  uf  our  Lord 
one  Ihousanil  eight  hundred  and  fifiy-aeven. 

"  John  Kriz*, 

Archdeaam, Miniiter of  tbe  ViUlarien  CAurchin 

Elaiatnbarg,  Ordinary  Professor  of  Theology 

in  the  Unitarian  College  at  Klauteniurg,  and 

Mtmker  of  the  Hungarian  Literary  Society. 

"  AhTOH   KOVACSIO, 

Rector  of  the  Unitarian  College  at  KlauserUnirg, 
and  Ordinary  Professor  of  Classical  Utera- 

VO[-V.   KO.  II.  21 


242        PBOFE880B8  BAUB  AND  LSCHLKR. 


PROFESSORS  BAUR  AND  LECHLER. 

In  the  Journal  published  just  one  year  ago,  we  stated, 
under  the  head  of  JDigtribuHon  of  our  Literature  in  Gtr- 
many,  that  the  Association  had  sent  copies  of  their  publica^ 
tions  to  some  of  the  leading  scholars  of  that  country.  In 
addition  to  letters  received  from  Drs.  Erdmann  and  Ubici, 
Professors  of  Philosophy,  alluded  to  in  our  April  number, 
we  have  lately  had  letters  of  acknowledgment  from  the  dis- 
tinguished Professors  of  Theology  above  named.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  books  were  received  in  the  spirit  in  which 
they  were  offered,  and  a  reciprocation  of  hearty  feelings  is 
expressed. 

The  following  is  a  translation  of  Lechler^s  letter  from 
Dr.  Baur:  — 

*<To  THE  American  Unitarian  Association  in  Boston  : — ' 

*'  The  Honorable  Association  has  had  the  goodness  to  send  me 
the  following  works :  — 

**  Statement  of  Reasons  for  not  Believing  the  Doctrines  of 
Trinitarians.     By  A.  Norton.    2d  ed.,  Boston,  1856. 

'*  Collection  of  Theological  Essays  from  various  Authors.   1856. 

<<  Selection  from  the  Works  of  W.  E.  Channing.     1855. 

"  While  advising  the  Honorable  Association  of  the  receipt  of 
these  works,  I  tender  them  my  most  cordial  thanks  for  this  to  me 
exceedingly  valuable  gifl. 

'*  I  not  only  see  from  these  excellent  works  what  important 
progress  learning  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry  are  making  in  the 
New  World,  but  shall  ever  regard  them  as  a  most  valuable  testi- 
mony of  the  community  of  mind  which  connects  me  also  with  the 
Honorable  Association. 

"  With  distinguished  esteem, 

"  D.  Baur,  Professor  of  Theology, 

"Tubingen,  June  20,  1857." 


PBOFBBSOBB  BAUB  AHD  LSOBLEK.       24S 

GotthabdJVictok  Lechleb  ia  Doctor  of  Fhilosophf 
and  IHaconuB  in  "Waiblingen  in  Witrtembe^,  an  EvangelttxU 

LtUheran  preacher,  therefore.  His  book,  "The  Apostolic 
and  Post- Apostolic  Age,  with  reference  to  the  Difference 
and  Agreement  between  Taul  and  the  other  Apostlee,  be- 
tween Heathen  and  Jewish  Christians,"  obtained  the  prize 
offered  by  the  Tayler  Theological  Society  in  Haarlem,  in 
the  year  1848,  and  was  first  published  in  1851.  He  was 
fornjely  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Baur,  of  whom  he  speaks  with  great 
respect,  while  opposing  ably  his  views.  His  book  was  rec- 
ognized as  one  of  the  ablest  refutations  of  the  Tubingen 


He  writes  as  follows  in  EDglish :  — 

'To   THE   AmEEICAN    UNITARIAN    ASSOCIATION  : - 


"  Desk  Sins,  —  I  was  greatly  aatoniahed  yesterday,  when  three 
Tolumes  published  by  your  Association  reached  me  duly  Tia  Halle. 
And  I  shall  not  delay  giving  account  to  }'au  of  the  receipt  thereof, 
and  particalarly  thanking  your  Society  from  my  whole  heart  for 
the  gift  presented  to  myself.  Though  I  heartily  belong  to  the 
Lutheran  Chnich,  and  do  not  admit  of  ihu  jmrticular  tenets  of  your 
dEoominaiion,  yet  I  am  tolerant  enough  iind  highly  esteem  free- 
dom of  inquiry,  sincere  love  of  Irutli  ajid  learning,  candid  ingenu- 
ousness, Bod  true  piety  and  virtue,  bo  that  on  this  ground  Iheartily 
shuke  hands  with  you  in  spirit,  seeing  by  your  publications  that 
your  Association  is  also  of  a  '  wide  heart,'  as  we  use  to  ex- 

"  Among  ihe  works  you  had  the  kindness  to  present  to  me,  the 
CoUection  of  Theological  Essays,  by  Dr.  Noyea,  is  to  myself  meet 
Taluable ;  not  less  interesting  is  also  the  Selection  fiom  the  works 
of  the  late  Dr.  Channing ;  but  I  do  not  hesitate  confessing  to  yoo 
that  the  Statement  of  Beasons,  by  the  late  A  Norton,  is  least 
of  all  a  work  1  sympathize  with.  But  after  all,  I  am  very  much 
obliged  to  you  for  presenting  a  proof  of  your  profitable  and  ia- 
BtroctiTe  paUioatioDB. 


244         FOUBTH  HALF-TBABLT  BSPOBT 

''  If  I  had  at  band  a  copy  of  the  second  improved  edition  of  my 
<  Apostolic  and  Post- Apostolic  Age,  with  reference  to  the  Diffei- 
ence  and  Agreement  between  Paul  and  the  other  Apostles,  be- 
tween Heathen  and  Jewish  Christians,'  (Stuttgart,  1857,)  I  should 
be  proud  of  presenting  a  copy  thereof  to  your  Association ;  but 
now  I  can  only  give  you  notice  of  that  publication,  parts  of  which, 
I  suppose,  could  be  profitable  also  to  students  of  divinity  in  your 
country,  and  even  in  your  denomination. 

'<  Believe  me,  dear  Sir,  yours,  very  truly  and  obliged, 

"G.  V.  Lkchlbr." 


it 


KniUlingerii  near  MauBronn,  in  WUrtembergy 
September  IQ-U,  1857." 


FOURTH  HALF-YEARLY  REPORT  TO  THE 

CALCUTTA  SOCIETY. 

Under  the  title  of  Bidta  Missiouj  we  republished  several 
months  ago,  in  a  small  pamphlet  form,  the  second  half- 
yearly  report  made  to  the  "Society  in  Calcutta  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Grospel  in  India."  It  gave  a  detailed 
account  of  the  steps  taken  to  establish  a  permanent  mission- 
ary station  in  the  heart  of  British  India,  of  the  modes  of 
Christian  action,  by  preaching,  lecturing,  printing,  and  dis- 
tributing books  and  tracts,  there  adopted,  of  the  number  of 
persons  reached  by  these  agencies,  and  of  the  encourage- 
ments and  discouragements  of  the  undertaking.  This  little 
pamphlet  was  widely  distributed,  and  it  served  to  difiuse 
important  information,  and  to  awaken  interest  throughout 
our  churches. 

We  have  now  received  the  fourth  half-yearly,  or  the 


TO  THE   OALOUTTA  SOdBTT.  245 

Becood  snnnal  report,  which  was  read  to  the  Calcntbi  Sodet; 
on  the  Sid  of  Angnet  last  It  occapies  eight  fall  columiu 
of  a  Calcatta  newspaper,  and  is  as  minute  and  full  on  bQ 
the  topics  treated  as  was  the  report  we  reprinted. 

We  Bhonld  be  ^ai  to  present  this  docoment  also  to  onr 
American  churches.  But,  unwilling  to  incur  the  expense 
this  would  involve,  wa  must  content  onrselyes  with  selec- 
dons  of  the  most  important  paragraphs,  which  majr  show 
at  a  glance  the  progress  the  misuon  has  made  during  the 
past  year,  and  the  position  it  now  occupies. 

Our  Missionary  in  the  early  part  of  this  Report  alludes 
to  the  well-known  _/iCjt/ejiPss  ofOie  Mengidee  ekaractvr.  The 
readers  of  Lord  Macaulay'a  articles  on  "  Warren  Hastings  " 
and  "  Lord  Clive "  may  rernember  the  discriminating  re- 
marks of  the  brilliant  essayist  upon  the  differences  of  ciiiir- 
acter  in  the  numerous  provinces  of  Hindoatan.  Thus  the 
natives  of  the  northern  regions,  of  the  Punjaub,  of  Delhi, 
Oude,  Allahabad,  are  remarkable  for  their  energy,  decision, 
and  general  force  of  character.  It  is  among  these  chiefly 
that  the  recent  revolt  has  appeared,  and  its  principal  ele- 
ment of  alarm  was  found  in  these  characteristics  of  the  in- 
surgents. On  the  other  hand,  the  natives  of  the  Presidency 
of  Bengal  are  of  a  quite  opposite  character,  and  are  re- 
markable for  their  effeminacy,  untruthfulness,  fickleness, 
and  general  feebleness  of  will.  To  men  of  this  deacriplion 
Mr.  Dall's  acquaintance  has  chieSy  been  confined.  Accord- 
ingly there  have  been  those  who  have  felt  that  no  reports 
of  his  first  impressions  or  first  successes  can  he  permanently 
relied  upon.  They  have  said  he  must  live  in  that  country 
a  long  time  in  order  to  acquire  trustworthy  knowledge  ;  ex- 
perience will  modify  his  conclusions,  and  abate  his  sanguine 
hopes ;  for  he  will  see  that  he  is  surrounded  by  men  whose 
real  motives  and  characters  he  has  misunderstood. 
21  • 


246         FOUBTH  HALF-TBABLT  BBPOBT 

We  have  always  felt  that  there  is  much  troth  in  this 
view,  and  that  here  is  the  rock  of  danger.  For  this  reason 
we  are  not  surprised  to  see  indications  of  a  different  ii^^. 
terpretation  of  the  character  of  men  around  him  in  M^ 
Dall's  later  reports.  Still,  he  dwells  with  characteristio 
hopefulness  upon  the  best  view  of  the  facts  of  the  cases. 
The  entire  paragraph  where  he  alludes  to  the  number  and 
character  of  those  influenced  by  the  Missionary  is  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

<(  Upwards  of  375  Tisiton  of  the  MissionaTy  have  given  him 
their  names,  as  men  desirous  of  knowing  the  elements  of  religious 
truth.  Many  of  these  have  called  but  a  few  times.  Such  is  the 
present  fickleness  of  the  Bengalee  character,  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
say  what  proportion  of  these  three  or  four  hundred  men  will  pe^ 
severe  in  a  regular  course  of  religious  inquiry.  Most  of  them  are 
young  men,  students  in  the  colleges.  They  are  to  furnish  the 
ranks  of  native  thought  and  scholarship,  and  the  seed  may  he 
germinating  where  we  least  expect  it.  Of  the  375, 134  have  given 
me  their  address  since  the  first  of  January  last. 

**  This  influx  of  inquirers  to  the  Mission  Room  —  allowing  do 
time  to  go  forth  and  seek  them  —  might  have  been  set  down, 
during  the  first  few  months,  as  little  more  than  mere  curiosity ; 
but  that  this  daily  visitation  should  continue  unabated  at  the  com- 
mencement of  our  third  year  indicates  something  more  than  in- 
quisitiveness,  and  points  to  a  settled  need ;  a  mental,  moral,  and 
spiritual  demand,  to  which  we  are,'as  Christians,  bound  to  a&id 
a  permanent  supply. 

**  Letters  continue  coming  in  from  different  parts  of  India.  To 
all  these  there  have  been  direct  replies ;  viz.  to  friends  of  ooi 
work  residing  in  Madras,  Bombay,  Poonah,  Rangoon,  Salem,  the 
Neelgherry  Hills,  Secunderabad,  Jessore,  Darjeeling,  Futtyghur, 
Mysore,  Burdwan,  Goberdanga,  Bhagulpore,  Hooghly,  and  Nainee 
Tal.  Thus,  one  or  more  disciples  of  our  faith  are  in  correspond- 
ence with  us  in  many  parts  of  India,  some  of  them  one  thousand 
miles  or  more  from  Calcutta. 


TO  THB   CALOTJTTA  800IBTT.  247 

*'  TTie  attendance  on  Sundays  at  oar  legixlar  services,  and  San- 
day  School,  has  not  diminished.  During  the  27  SabbaUis  of  the 
lial^yeari  104  dififerent  worshippers  have  joined  with  us  in  prayer 
and  praise,  though  the  average  attendance  has  been  but  25.  Of 
these  worshippers  36  are  heathen  young  men;  14  are  native 
Christians;  22  are  Anglo-Indian  Christians,  or  Eurasians;  14 
£ngliriunen ;  and  18  Ammeans. 

**  A  pMge  of  success^  lying  in  the  Mission  Room,  has  from 
Sand&y  to  Sunday  receiYad  the  names  of  53  Americans,  15  Eng* 
ILdimen,  7  Anglo-Indians,  and  27  natives  of  Bengal,  making  in  all, 
since  the  opening  of  the  Mission,  one  hundred  and  two  persons ; 
whose  dedaration  is,  *  We,  the  undersigned,  believe  that  Unita- 
rian Clr»tianity  will  be  a  blessing  to  India,  and  we  wish  it  all 


''  A  pledge  of  Assedatian  has  likewise  received  the  names  of 
tweoty'-five  rendents  (^Calcutta.  It  reads  as  follows:  *  Our  ob- 
ject, m  here  sobseribbg  our  names,  is  united  thought  and  action 
in  the  Mndy  and  practice  (^Christianity.'  Two  hours  of  social 
study  of  the  Bible  every  Sunday,  correspondence  with  persons 
at  a  distance,  and  some  book  and  tract  distribution,  with  oc- 
casional ooDtiftvtieDS  to  the  newspapers  by  more  than  one  of 
OUT  membeis,  help  to  redeem  this  pledge  of  Christian  fellowship 
and  co-labor. 

**  The  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  wiUi  thirteen  com- 
municants, commenced  at  the  opening  of  this  year,  January, 
1867." 

Of  the  convenient  arrangement  of  the  Mission  Boom, 
at  No.  4  Tank  Square,  Calcutta,  the  Missionary  thus 
writes: — 

"  Our  Mission  Boom  is  a  centre  of  instruction  and  theological 
reading.  This  commodious  hall,  with  its  adjoining  rooms,  was 
secured  by  an  old  friend  of  our  work,  soon  after  the  Mission  was 
opened  in  1855.  Here  we  commenced  public  Divine  service  in 
August  of  that  year,  and  here  we  have  gone  on  preaching  and 
lecturing  without  interruption.    From  the  fiist  of  January,  1857, 


248  FOUBTH  ELAXF-7EABLT  KRPOBT 

the  Missionary  came  here  to  reside,  in  a  side  room.    Since  that 
time  the  place  has  been  the  constant  resort  of  inquirers ;  who 
come  in  numbers  of  from  four  or  five  to  even  twenty  a  day. 
Through  Mr.  Pratt's  generosity  we  furnished  the  main  room  with 
seats,  though  as  yet  we  have  not  been  in  funds  to  lease  the  prem- 
ises.   The  Mission  room  will  hold  two  hundred  worshippers.    It 
is  in  the  upper  story  of  a  large  building  located  centrally,  yet  in  a 
healthy  part  of  Calcutta.    Two  members  of  our  Committee  also 
occupy  adjoining  rooms,  and  as  we  have  a  conmion  table,  a  de- 
cided advantage  to  the  Mission  is  the  result.    Thus  are  two  ad- 
visers always  at  hand,  one  of  whom  has  been  a  leading  editor  in 
Bengal  for  thirty  or  forty  years.    An  outlay  of  100  Rupees,  or  so, 
per  mensem  ($  600  per  annum)  would  give  us  something  like  per- 
manent possession  here  of  all  the  accommodation  that  we  shonid 
need  for  three  or  four  years  to  come.     As  it  is,  we  feel  that,  io 
our  well-located  rooms,  a  kind  Providence  has  given  us  what  is 
very  important  to  the  success  of  nearly  every  undertaking,  namely, 
a  permanent  place  of  labor,  where  we  are  always  to  be  found." 

From  the  first  establishment  of  the  Mission  the  dicula- 
tion  of  books  and  tracts  has  been  a  primary  object.    So 
much  has  been  said  lately  in  all  the  newspapers  about 
India  and  its  people,  that  all  intelligent  persons  have  come 
to  a  far  better  knowledge  on  these  points  than  was  even  quite 
recently  possessed.     The  Hindostanese  are  in  general  a 
people  of  much  culture,  —  they  have  been   educated  in 
schools,  and  are  a  reading  people ;  and  as  there  is  a  pre- 
vailing disposition' to  find  something  better  than  their  old 
superstitions  have  supplied,  an  encouraging  opening  has 
been  made  for  books  and  tracts  explaining  a  pure  theism. 
Mr.  Dall  appears  to  have  spared  no  pains  to  use  this  in- 
strument of  moral  influence  to  the  greatest  advantage,  and 
we  feel  grateful  that  he  has  ascertained  the  following  pre- 
cise facts,  which  are  important  elements  in  forming  an  opin- 
ion as  to  the  worth  of  this  mission  movement. 


TO   THB   CALCUTTA  800IBTT.  249 

**  Books  and  Tracts  have  been  disposed  of  as  follows:  1.  They 
have  been  lent,  as  from  a  circalating  library ;  2.  They  have  been 
sold;  3.  They  have  been  given  to  applicants. 

''1.  From  the  L^aty,  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  Tolumes  have 
been  borrowed,  and  most  of  them  returned  and  borrowed  again 
and  again,  during  the  last  six  months.  The  larger  prop<nlion  of 
the  readers  are  natives  of  this  country,  perhaps  fifty  out  of  seventy ; 
and  a  small  minority  of  these  natives  are  professing  Christians. 
The  addition  of  books  to  our  library  would  increase  the  efiiciency 
of  the  Mission.  Hodgson  Pratt,  Esq.  gave  us  a  donation  of  thirty 
volumes  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  England. 

^*  3.  The  Sale  of  Books  firom  the  Mission  Room  has  gone  on  as 
heretofore.  Three  of  the  leading  bod^sellers  of  the  city  consent 
to  keep  a  fe;w  of  our  books  on  their  shelves,  but  it  signifies  little, 
beyond  a  recognition  (^  us  as  Christians,  or  as  men  whose  aim  is 
good,  and  who  have  a  right  to  be  heard.  The  sale  of  books  made 
to  men  who  have  personally  applied  for  them,  or  asked  for  them 
at  the  Mission  Boom,  after  conversation,  affords  an  index  to  the 
reality  of  out  work  which  deserves  a  careful  scrutiny.  A  majority 
of  the  purehasem  4xf  theie  books  are  poor  men.  Most  of  them  are 
yoong  men  j«st  eatisring  into  employment,  and  whose  salaries  sel- 
dom exceed  30  rupees  ($  15)  a  month,  while  families  look  to 
many  of  them  for  support.  It  is  frequently  alleged  that  the 
Bengalee  is  shrewd  enough  to  come  to  any  educated  foreigner, 
Missionary  or  otherwise,  so  long  as  he  can  get  good  without 
paying  anything  for  it.  Many,  sceptical  of  our  possibly  benefit- 
ing *a  lying  Bengalee,'  have  said,  *When  they  begin  to  pay- 
down  their  money,  we  shall  confess  that  you  have  touched  their 
hearts ! '  Special  attention  is  therefore  asked  to  the  following  ac- 
count of  the  book-sales ;  which  is  purposely  made  to  cover  the 
two  years  past.  Bear  in  mind  that  our  supply  of  books  has  been 
very  limited,  and  that  books  have  been  inquired  for,  money  in 
hand,  which  were  '  all  gone.'  There  is  inquiry,  for  example,  for 
six  or  eight  sets  of  Channing's  Works  in  six  volumes,  at  5 
rupees,  $3.50  a  set,  which  we  cannot  supply,  but  which  we 
hope  are  en  the  way  to  us,  over  the  sea.    Let  the  following 


S60  FOUKTH  MUJr-rxAXLT  SKPOKT 

nmiDuy  tprnk  fbi  itaelt    Of  sndi  books  la  no  distributed  bj  tie 
Americui  UujlaiuD  Aasoeutioa, — 
61  mti*ea  of  Beng&t,  of  whom  10  ira  natiTo  Chris- 
tians, and  17  reside  oat  of  Calentts,  have  pur- 
chased S88  Tolnmes  of  Unitaiisn  Books,  and  paid  Boftte. 

for  ihem S9I    3  0 

B  Eurasians  (men  of  mingled  Aaiatia  and  Eiuo- 
pean  Uood)  have  purchased  30  Tolnmes  of  UDitSr- 
rian  boolis,  and  paid  fui  ihcm  .         .         .     5G  14    0 

3  Arraeiiiang  hiive  bought  9  volameE,  and  paid        .  7     0    0 

16  Europeans  have  bought  131  Tolumes,  and  paid      .   118     0    0 
IS  Americans  have  bought  71  volumes,  and  paid    .         65     0    0 
l^us  89  persoiiB  have  bought,  during  the  first  two 
^ears  of  our  Mission,  473  volumes  of  Unitarian  j 

works,  and  paid  for  ihera 548    0    0 

**  This  includes  whatever  income  has  arisen  from  the  two  Tol- 
atnes  of  tracts  and  lectuies  which  the  Missiunar;  has  written  nnd 
published  in  Calcutta ;  and  the  small  amount  leajized  from  tbe  , 
sale  of  a  few  of  the  hooks  sent  to  our  Mission  from  special  frienda 
in  England  and  America,  Without  any  reserVB,  the  entire  in-  j 
come  from  books  is  set  apart  to  the  publication  fund,  the  ISIis- 
sioDary  desiring,  and  receiving,  no  pecuniary  letum  Ibr  die 
productions  of  bia  pen. 

"  The  sum  received  for  books  sold  during  the  last  six  moDiha, 
January  to  July,  1B57,  is  Rupees  118  8  0. 

"  3.  It  only  reiuains,  under  this  head,  to  tell  in  what  directioa 
have  gone  out  front  us  those  books  and  tiaels  which  it  has  been 
thought  best  to  give  aaay,  without  other  return  than  the  ihanLs 
of  the  applicant  and  his  promise  to  make  the  best  uee  of  the  gift, 
lo  his  own  and  others'  improvement.  It  should  be  menlioeed 
(hat  there  is  a  daily  distribution  of  tiacls  to  such  as  call  and  uk 
for  them,  of  which  the  only  record  we  keep  is  that  of  the  namea 
of  (he  receivers.  This  daily  diatrihutiou  of  Christian  truth  goea 
abroad,  as  we  have  reason  to  know,  far  beyond  the  lioiits  of  Cal- 
cnlta.  YisitB  are  oAen  made  by  men  who  are  transiently  here  m 
business,  and  whose  homes  are  many  hondieds  of  miles  away. 


TO   THE   CALCUTTA  SOCIETY. 


251 


■'  We  hare  one  pecaliar  salisfaction  in  the  gratoiuiua  diBtriba- 
tion  of  our  books  and  ttacla.  We  have  never  been  obliged  to 
press  any  man  lo  leud  what  we  iiffor,  even  Iho  New  Testament; 
of  which  fifty  oi  tnoTe  copies  hare  been  asked  for,  and  Joined  or 
given,  as  the  case  might  be.  What  can  we  call  ihia  spirit  of 
inqniry  in  heaihen  hearts,  hot  the  working  of  lliat  Holy  Spirit 
of  God,  who  promised  of  uid,  '  1  will  give  ihee  the  heathen  for 
thine  inheritance'?  We  aie  aided,  no  doubt,  by  education*!  and 
governmental  influeucea ;  by  acbools,  librarica,  and  colleges  »c»t- 
lered  over  the  land ;  by  even  railways  and  tckgraphs,  and  En- 
ropean  improvements  in  building  and  manufacturing  and  journey- 
ing about  the  country.  There  is  an  awakening  on  every  hand 
from  the  sleep  of  ages.  Clearly  God  ia  in  it  all,  and  the  happilj 
strange  fact  is,  that  tee  are  sought  out  by  the  Gentiles.  We  have 
no  chance  to  aak.  Who  hath  received  our  measage  ?  or,  To  whom 
ia  the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed  1  That  our  feeble  efforla,  thus  far, 
have  been  met  by  a  spirit  of  inquiry  on  the  part  of  the  healheo, 
and  this  to  a  marked  degree  in  missionary  experience,  no  man  can 
deny.  God  give  us  strength  and  wisdom  to  break  to  them  *  the 
Living  Bread  that  came  down  from  heaven,  to  give  life  lo  the 

"  Those  places,  far  and  near,  to  which  we  have  sent  books  and 
tracts  jo  donation,  during  the  last  six  months,  are  as  follows :  — 

"  Jaiaiary  22d.  —  To  Madras  and  Salem,  15  vols,  books  and 
■10  selected  tracts,  by  the  hands  of  a  friend,  George  Devenish,  Esq. 

"  January  25th.  — Thirty  copies  of  the  child's  momiDg  and 
evening  prayer,  in  Bengali,  to  pupils  of  the  School  at  Bali. 

"February  fid.  —  FiAj  copies  (Bengali)  child's  prayer,  with 
twenty  tnels  and  lectures,  distributed  to  petitioners  for  ihem  at 
tto  two  Schoola  (350  pnpila)  of  Ooterpaiah  and  Bali. 

'^  Febmaiy  3d.  —  Twenty  copies  (in  Bengali)  of  children's 
pny^n  to  the  Goberdanga  School  (SOO  pupils). 

"  JWrtwry  2&A.  —  Two  dozen  iracts  seol,  by  a  native  Chris- 
tian, to  Burdwui  and  places  along  the  road. 

"  JUorcA  lit. — A  package  of  54  pictured  cards  with  hymns, 
by  Baboo  Horonatta  Takoor,  to  52  difTerent  pupils  of  a  school  near 
Cbandemagore,  received  with  avidity  (150  pupils). 


252         FOURTH  HALF-TSABLT  BBPOBT 

'*  March  Isi.  —  Ditto  to  Mrs.  L.'s  School,  io  Calcutta. 
''  March  nth.  —  36  copies  Temperanee  lecture,  to  non-memben 
at  the  Bethune  Society. 

*'  March  fi2d.  —  To  a  native  Unitarian  Sunday  school  at  Bali, 
inatitnted  by  Jogatchander  Gkiogooly,  besides  a  fall  set  of  manuals, 
20  copies  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Also  a  dosen  copies  to  Horonath 
Thakoor  for  his  Sanday  class  at  Chandemagore. 

'<  March  S4/A.  —  GiTcn  as  prize  books  to  the  Bali  school,  33 
Tolumes,  worth  Rupees  15,  indnding  the  Bible,  Channing,  Baitol, 
and  10  Sargent^s  Readers;  also  164  Tracts,  &c.  to  Bali  and 
Ooterparah. 

*'  Supplies  of  tracts,  &c.  have  also  been  given  to  suchastukd 
far  them,  as  follows:  —  March  26/A,  Goberdanga;  March  37/A, 
Calcutta;  Marcl^  28M,  Cossipore;  March  30^,  Calcutta; 
March  315/,  Cossipore.  Tracts  were  also  sent  after  request, 
April  4th^  to  Bhagulpore,  and  same  day  to  Madras,  by  H.  Fiatt, 
B^sq.  April  9th,  to  the  brothers,  Rajahs  of  SerafulH,  near  Seiam- 
pore.  April  lOth^  36  tracts  and  70  prayers  (in  Bengali)  to  the 
GrOYemment  School,  Goberdanga. 

'<  April  I3th,  —  At  the  Jonye  Training  School,  81  tracts  and 
150  copies  prayers,  among  200  or  more,  teachers  and  pupils. 
April  I5th,  —  Three  dozen  tracts  at  Serampore  and  along  the 
road;  also  a  dozen  to  students  at  the  Metropolitan  College, 
Calcutta. 

''  May  ith.  —  By  Baboo  Mohendro  Nauth  Mookerjea,  18  lec- 
tures on  education  and  reform,  to  Goberdanga.  —  May  ^h. 
Tracts  to  Bhowaneepore  (written  for).  — May  9lh,  Lectures,  to 
Mrs.  L.'s  school.  —  May  14th.  Six  books  given  to  the  labrary 
of  the  House  of  Correction,  Calcutta, — which  were  thankfolly 
received  and  put  into  circulation.  — 3fay  5th.  Horace  Mann's 
'  Inaugural  Address '  on  complete  education,  sent  to  the  Rajah 
of  Burdwan,  and  to  many  native  gentlemen  in  and  out  of  Cal- 
cutta.—  May  ISth,  A  supply  of  books,  &c.  to  Madras,  by  onr 
friend  Chas.  F.  Bliss,  Esq.,  —  including  the  Hymns  on  pictured 
cards,  sent  us  from  Boston,  and  which  have  been  everywhere 
acceptable. 


858 

"Jwia  lOrt.— Tracts,  &c.  to  Mm.  L.'»  •diool,  Calcutta.— 
June  IlfA.  TraclB  '  Quarter);  Joucaftl,'  &c.  to  BbagnlpoK.— 
Tune  12fA.  Tracts  to  Chlnsurah.  —  Jun*  lUh.  (Month);)  dia- 
'  tribulion  of  educationa]  md  moral  traota  to  the  Betbnne  Sooietj.  — 
June  20tk.  15  copies  Female  Edacation  io  Hadiu,  dutribated  at 
ths  AoDiversai;  of  the  Young  Men't  Aaaooiation,  BhowtDeepone, 
—  June  30(ft,    Three  (Iomh  tracts  to  HoogUj,  bj  C.  S.  B. 

"  P.  S.   There  should  be  included  in  the  abare  iccoimt  the 

books  and  tracts  which  are  distributed  bj  Eogliih  and  Ameikao 

fiiends  of  our  Mission  in  Calcutta;  la  well  aa  160  copies  of  ont 

Thiid   Semiannual   Report,    sent   chieSy   to   dlatant  fiienda  io 

I     America,  Great  Britain,  Australia,  &e." 

Chapter  Fourth  io  this  Report  is  headed  Our  PuiUca- 
tions  iti  Calcaita.  We  have  read  it  with  eome  Borprise. 
We  knew  Mr.  Dall  was  a  man  of  indoatiy;  bat  we  were 
wlioll^  unprepared  for  any  euch  exhibit  of  woA  done  as  ii 
furnished  by  the  following,  fairly  pnttiDg  to  shame  all  that 
the  most  of  us  can  show :  — 

"  Om  publicatioDS  in  Calcutta,  in  pamphlet  form,  if  we  teckon 
from  September,  1855,  to  the  present  time,  amoiuit  in  number  to 
fort;,  and  if  we  include  two  Bengali  pabliestioDB,  on  a  single 
sheet,  to  fortj-two.  These  comprise  17  pamphleta  out  of  two 
(winter)  conisee  of  Theologiral  Lectures, — three  of  tha  second 
eooiae  (of  Tea  Leetniea)  having  not  yet  iasned  from  the  preaa. 
Alao  seren  or  eight  Lectnrea  and  Addressea  on  Edacational  and 
Uotal  Refimna ;  with  aa  many  Setmona  and  Tracta  called  oat  by 
special  oooaaiona  and  leqneats.  The  Bethnne  Society,  the  Me- 
tn^olitan  College,  and  the  Jonye  Training.  School  have,  at  their 
own  charge,  printed  and  circulated  our  addresses  to  them 

"  Since  the  piinting  of  our  Manual  of  Prayer  and  Praise,  or 
Liturgy  of  Social  Worship,  in  September,  1855,  the  Mission  baa 
printed  oter  aiz  bandied  thooaand  pages  of  tracts,  lectures,  address- 
ea,  &e.,  in  pamphlet  form,  and  in  the  English  tongue.  Of  ita  three 
Bengali  distribudona,  one  waa  a  translation,  by  RakhU  Daaa  Hai- 
der, an  able  diaciple  of  Rammoban  Roy,  of  our  ■  Prayers  for  the 

TOI~  T.  HO.  n.  22 


254         FOUBTH  HALF-TEABLT  BSPO&T 

Christian  Life,'  with  a  preface  of  his  own;  and  the  other  two 
were  translations,  by  disciples  of  the  Mission,  of  two  brief  prayers 
for  children,  and  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  These  three  were  printed 
on  cards  and  sent  into  schools  and  families. 

*'  Let  as  be  cheered  by  the  fact,  that,  though  our  Sunday  audi- 
ence seldom  exceeds  thirty,  we  have  a  circle  of  several  thousand 
readers.  An  editor  has  written  us  that  oiur  words  go  '  wherever 
there  are  Europeans  on  this  side  of  India,  and  to  some  of  the  sta- 
tions in  the  other  presidencies.'  " 

Only  those  who  have  been  for  years  exiled  far  from  their 
native  land  can  tell  what  a  joyful  event  is  the  reception  of 
anything  from  home.  Our  Missionary  thos  records  four 
memorable  events  during  the  second  year  of  his  service:— 

*' There  have  been  four  most  welcome  arrivals  ofbooItsfKm 
Boston.    Twenty  dollars'  worth  of  books  reached  us  on  the  26th 
of  February  last.    They  consisted  largely  of  Quarterly  Jonmals, 
Sunday- School  Liturgies  and  Cards ;  with  five  copies  of  Norton's 
'  Statement  of  Reasons,'  and  five  copies  of  Noyes's  '  Theological 
Essays.'    We  received  on  the  Ist  of  May,  from  a  generous  firiend 
in  Boston,  fifly  copies  of  Horace  Mann's  Antioch  Inaugural  on 
Education,  and  one  hundred  copies  of  an  excellent  Essay  on  Educa- 
tion and  Crime,  by  our  revered  friend,  Cyrus  Fierce  of  West  New- 
ton, Mass.    On  the  20th  of  May  arrived  a  box  of  books  which  we 
had  ordered  from  Messrs.  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.,  for  our  library ; 
consisting  of  the  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  the  Life  of 
Mary  Ware,  Dewey's  Works,  Livermore's  Commentaries,  &c.,&c. 
On  the  2d  of  June  came  to  us  a  small  package  of  welcome  gift- 
books,  forwarded  by  Dr.  Miles  from  friends  in  Boston,  Cambridge, 
Charlestown,  Dedham,  and  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  with  seventy-five 
copies  of  the  Sunday-School  Gazette,    These  last  were  eagerly 
taken  up,  and,  with  their  attractive  pictures,  carried  into  the  Ze- 
nana and  the  hearts  of  families.   We  must  secure  another  supply  of 
these,  if  possible.     Four  copies  of  an  admirable  work  for  yonng 
Christians,  called  <  The  Homeward  Path,'  were  included  in  this 
package." 


TO  THR   CALCUTTA  SOOIKIX.  tSU 

■    The  feUowing  is  the  coaclosion  of  this  Report: — 

'.'  WelJ-aulhenticated  BtatisticB  inform  na  that,  for  llie  yeu  1856, 
English  Missionaries  and  M^ssioDatf  donations  veie,  — 

1.  Of  the  Church  ofEngknd,  £  371,804,  and  HJBBionsries  719. 

a.  OfotherBritiahChiircbH,£S15,S33,BiidMiMioaBries837. 

"  Yet  their  fiimeet  Bapportats  Bay,  '  If  any  one  wiahea  u>  con- 
tnat  OUT  indiffetenoe  at  oni  oowardiee  with  tlie  eaineatoen  of  the 
Chnteh  of  Rome,  'which  OTerapreada  the  Biidah  Ecopiie  with  its 
missioas,  let  him  take  op  the  Catholic  Directorr  for  1856,  and 
compare  it  with  the  meafrie  catslogoe  of  oui  trifling  peTfoimancea.' 
— '  There  is  a  new  element  at  work  in  the  nligions  woild.'  'Oo 
ferei^gTOnnd,  inpaTtici]]«i,monopo]jisnol(xigerposeible.  The 
free  ezneiae  of  Chriatian  pTinctpIe  fisda  Jms  and  leaa  hinderanee 
from  Uia  trammels  of  aneient  prejodiee.'  Now,  good  men  act 
fiuoiliailj  together,  who  bnt  a  few  jeaia  ago  fancied  thBraselTea 
nnable  to  meet  for  prayer  upon  coDnmoa  gtoond.  LiUle,  acatteied, 
iadependenl  associailionB  are  atimulanta  lo  the  great  bodies.  They 
arc  feeders  of  the  common  Church  of  Christendom.  They  are  the 
little  stieamlets  which  trickle  down  [he  mountain  rock,  and  slowly 
gather  in  the  tiny  channels  at  its  foot.  They  add  aR  eflectiTe, 
though  seemingly  a  trilling,  cotitriliution  to  the  rill  beneath. 
Though  attracting  no  obserratioti,  ihey  sBud  their  little  wealth 
abroad,  and  fill  up  a  system  of  more  public  and  Tisible  bounty,  m- 
lently  contributing  to  the  majestic  flaod  of  Evangelical  power  that 
is  going  forth,  year  by' year,  to  baptize  the  world." 

The  Eeport  of  the  Missionar;  is  followed  by  that  of  the 
Bctiog  Treasurer,  Mr.  John  W.  Linzee.  It  contains  a  few 
items  which  the  American  friends  of  this  mission  will  be 
pleased  to  see.  The  half-yearly  subscriptions  in  Calcutta 
amount  lo  over  three  hundred  dollars,  which  is  at  the  rate 
of  rax  handred  doHara  a  year.  A  generous  friend  in  Baltic 
more  sent  out  one  hundred  dollars  ia  aid  of  the  mission.  A 
jriend  in  MobUe  sent  out  tweDty-three  dollars.  The  British 
and  For^gn  Unitarian  Asso^lion  have  voted^My  pounds 


SK 

jcailyto  the  same  olgect,  tfaongli  no  portion  of  Uusiqipn)- 
priatiENi  bM  BB  jtA  been  reoeired.  The  little  etniggtiiig 
Bodetf  in  CUcattft  baa  earij  prored  itself  a  centre  snd  foiiD* 
tain  of  miasionarf  kbois  fiv  others,  1^  coUecUng  and  n- 
mitlii^  aeroi^-fiTe  ddlui  to  Willian  Boberts's  Sodetf  in 
Hadna,  and  alao  ODe  hnndred  and  twelve  dollars  to  Amer- 
S  who  naa  severe  sofierera  bj 
the  fire  atB 


lliere  k  an  Appendix  to  llus  Beport  which  is  longer  than 
tlie  B^CBi  itself.  It  is  a  Memoir  ofihe  Unitarian  Mission 
HI  Beitffaly  Jivm  iV*  Oriffia  m  1821  to  the  End  of  1827. 
This  IB  a  rept-tnt  of  &  sketch  which  had  before  been  pub- 
Ushed  in  Calcntta.  We  think  it  was  wise  thus  to  preserre 
an  histwical  notice  of  the  first  attempts  to  support  a  Unila- 
rian  KGsmiHiaiy  in  Calcutta,  which  were  made  thirty  years 
ago  by  tbe  elder  Ware,  Dr.  Tockerman,  Dr.  Gannett,  and 
Others.  We  had  no  idea  that  Calcutta  afibrded  materials 
for  Uiis  foU  and  valuable  Memoir.  To  Mr.  Sail  especially 
it  has  pecoliar  importance,  as  his  own  mission  is  but  reopeP' 
ing  a  work  which  has  already  some  historical  eignificance. 
Some  of  the  main  facts  set  forth  in  this  Memoir  we  will  now 
present  to  our  readers. 

A  Calcutta  Unitarian  Committee  was  duly  oi^anized  in 
1821.  Their  first  dut^  was  to  secnre  forugn  aid.  Accord- 
ingly, they  opened  a  correspondence  with  the  UnitaTiaiu  of 
Europe  and  America. 

"  The  first  t^rmptom  of  interest  was  disooveied  ia  a  seriM  of 
qDestions  addressed  by  Professor  Ware,  of  Harvard  UniTersilj, 
United  States,  on  behalf  of  a  number  of  Unitarian  Cbiistiana  with 
whom  he  was  associated,  to  some  of  the  membeig  of  the  Comnut- 
tee,  the  answers  to  which,  embodjing  all  the  infoTmatim  whidi 
eonld  be  obtained  respecting  the  aottud  state  of  Protestant  Misakn 


TO  XBE   OAI,0IITriL   SOCIKTT.  357 

in  Beogi],  were  published  fint  in  Calcntta,  and  anerwarda  at 
BoslMi  in  Ameiica,  wheie  they  excited  very  geoeral  altention  to 
(he  aabject  which  they  treated.  This  was  followed  by  a  doouion 
from  sereialindividnaUwhose  names  were  not  given,  of  three  hun- 
dred and  Berenty-fiTe  dollars  towards  the  support  of  a  Miscdonaiy, 
bnt  which  was  placed, at  the  disposal  of  the  Cominittee  for  the  gen- 
eral porpases  of  the  Mission,  and  by  a  foither  donation  of  one  hun- 
dred dollars  from  the  '  Aasooiation  for  aiding  Religions  Charities 
in  Brattle  Sqaare  Cbnrcb,'  Boston,  which  was  added  to  die  Chapel 
Fond. 

"InFebmary,  1825,  an  Asaooiation  was  formed  in  Boaton  'with 
a  view  to  obtain  and  diffuse  inforraation  respecting  the  slate  of  re- 
ligion iu  India,  and  to  devise  and  recommend  means  for  the  pro- 
motion of  Christianity  in  that  pnrt  of  the  world,'  of  which  Piofea- 
sor  Ware  was  President,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tuclterman,  Secretary,  and 
Mr.  Lewis  Tappao,  Treasurer  ;  and  Iho  first  act  of  this  Associa- 
tion was  to  remit  six  hundred  dollars  as  their  first  annua!  contri- 
bution in  aid  of  the  funds  fat  the  support  of  a  Missionary,  with  an 
engagement  to  continue  it  for  three  years  certain; .and  the  sum 
tbns  received  was  also  placed  at  the  disposal  of  tlie  Committee. 
In  the  course  of  the  year  183G,  various  public  meetings  were  held 
in  Boston,  and  were  numerously  attended,  the  result  of  which  itas, 
instead  of  the  Associations  just  mentioned,  for  obtaining  informa- 
tion, the  Bubstitution  of  a  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Chcisilanity 
in  India,  and  a  futlher  remittance  from  that  Society  of  six  hundred 
dollars  towards  the  support  of  a  Missionary  ;  wiih  a  pledge  lo  re- 
mit an  equal  sun  ananally  for  ten  years,  and  the  expression  of  a 
strong  hope  of  being  able  to  continue  this  contiibntion  indeliaitely. 

The  Memoir  proceeds  to  detail  the  co-operation  received 
from  England,  and  the  success  experienced  in  obtaining  the 
serricea  of  a  Missionary. 

"  The  first  object  accomplished  by  the  nnited  contributions  of  the 
En^i^,  American,  and  Calcutta  Unitarians  is  the  permanent  en- 
gagement of  a  person  competent  to  act  as  a  Unitarian  minialer  and 
r,  bj  deroting  the  chief  part  of  his  time  to  the  bosineas 


258         FOUBTH  HlXr-TXABLT  RBPOBT 

of  the  Committee,  condacting  the  loeal  and  foreign  correspoiideDcey 
and  patting  into  execution,  or  anperintending,  meamixea  for  the 
promotion  of  religion  and  education  on  the  spot.    The  indiyidoal 
employed  for  the  performance  of  these  duties  is  the  Bev.  William 
Adam,  whose  engagement  with  this  Committee  commenced  &om 
Ist  May,  1897.    It  has  already  been  mentioned,  that  the  British 
and  Foreign  Unitarian  Association  have  offered  permanently  to 
contribute  for  this  purpose  fifteen  hundred  rupees  annually,  and 
the  American  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christianity  in  India 
six  hundred  dollars  annually  for  ten  yean  certain  ;  and  it  is  now 
to  be  added  that  this  Committee  have  founded  a  Missionary  Fond, 
and  from  the  accruing  interest  haTO  agreed  permanently  to  con- 
tribute to  the  same  object  one  hundred  and  twenty-fiye  rupees  per 
month,  the  salary  derived  from  these  different  sources  amounting 
to  about  three  hundred  and  fifly  rupees  per  month." 

The  need  of  a  more  general  organization  soon  became 
apparent  Accordingly,  a  meeting  of  the  friends  and  sup- 
porters of  Unitarian  Christianity  in  Calcutta  was  held  at  the 
Hurkaru  Public  Booms,  on  Sunday,  the  30th  of  December, 
1827,  Theodore  Dickens,  Esq.  in  the  chair.  At  this  meet- 
ing it  was  resolved  to  form  a  Society  to  be  called  the  Brit' 
tsh  Indian  Unitarian  Association.  On  motion  of  Kev. 
William  Adam,  a  resolve  was  passed  inviting  the  assistance 
and  countenance  of  the  Unitarians  of  Europe  and  America. 
On  motion  of  Kammohun  Koy,  a  resolve  was  passed  invit- 
ing the  formation  of  auxiliary  associations  throughout  Brit- 
ish India. 

Following  this  are  extended  accounts  of  the  modes  of  ser- 
vice adopted  by  Mr.  Adam,  in  procuring  a  chapel  for  public 
worship,  opening  schools,  enlisting  native  service,  distribut- 
ing books  and  tracts,  establishing  a  library,  &c.  We  fio^ 
next  the  ^  Constitution  of  the  American  Unitarian  Society 
f  or  the  Promotion  of  Christianity  in  India,"  with  a  full  list 
of  its  officers,  Rev.  Henry  Ware,  D.  D.  being  the  Fresi' 


TO   THE  CALCUTTA  SOCIETY,  2fi9 

dent,  and  Bev.  Joseph  Tuckenaan,  D.  D.  the  Corrcflponding 
Secretary.  Eitracla  from  the  correspondence  which  the 
Calcutta  Society  conducted  are  next  presented,  and  letters 
are  reprinted  which  were  received  from  Eev.  W.  J.  Fox, 
Foreign  Secretary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Unitarian 
Association,  Rev.  Ezra  S.  Gannett,  then  Secretary  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Aasociation,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Tuckerman. 
There  are  also  full  accounts  of  proceedinf^  of  public  meetings 
held  at  Pantheon  Hal]  in  Boston,  and  at  the  Deny  Street 
Vestiy,  tf^ether  with  lists  of  subscription  to  the  MissionaTy 
and  Chapel  Fund. 

0r.  Tuckerman,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  India,  says,  "  We 
have  now  collected,  I  think,  S  3,300  " ;  and  Mr.  Dall  showa 
in  a  note  that  there  was  paid  for  the  purchase  of  the  Chapel 
ground  in  Colioga  (a  part  of  Calcutta)  the  som  of  $  6,175. 
Mr.  Dall  adds  :  — 

"  Diligent  aeaich  has  been  made  for  the  Chapel  lot,  which  ap- 
pears to  haie  been  bought  and  paid  for  in  1824-  5  hy  the  Calcntta 
lloilaiian  CoiDinittee ;  but  as  yet  even  its  precise  locality  has  elud- 
ed us.  The  Rev.  William  Adam,  the  only  sarvivor  of  its  trus- 
tees, is  supposed  10  be  residing  somewhere  in  England,  and  we 
should  be  gild  to  hear  from  him.  No  records  that  we  can  gam 
access  to  have  given  db  any  clew  lo  the '  Colingi  Chapel  Lot.' 

"  Among  the  facts  that  partly  account  fur  the  Eiispenaion  of  an 
enterprise  undertaken  with  so  much  hope,  persevered  in  for  eight 
or  ten  years,  and  finally  so  liberally  endowed  u  was  the  Calcnita 
Mission,  are  the  following,  viz. :  —  1.  A  atorm  of  social  persecu- 
tion ;  2.  The  death  of  Ramniohun  Roy ;  3.  The  withdrawal  of 
the  Missionary,  Re*.  William  Adam,  without  a  successor;  and 
4.  The  mercantile  '  failure '  of  all  the  leading  ■  firms '  in  Calcutta, 
commencing  with  that  of  Palmer  .Si  Co.,  in  1B29  -  30." 

As  we  dose  our  notice  of  this  Appendix,  we  may  allude 
lo  a  fact  which  is  not  without  its  inatructive  lesson.  The 
money  collected  thirty  years  ago  for  miisionary  service  in 


260  EXTRACTS   FBOH  LSTTSB8. 

India  was  not  lost.  It  is  safely  preserved  to  this  day.  It 
is  held  in  London  as  an  India  Fund,  out  of  which  the  an- 
nual appropriation  of  two  hundred  and  fifly  dollars  to  Mr. 
Ball  is  made.  Thus  it  has  been  reserved  to  help  a  second 
movement,  which  we  hope  will  have  a  success  and  perma- 
nence denied  to  the  first. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

We  find  our  pages  so  crowded  by  other  articles,  that  we 
have  but  little  space  in  this  number  of  the  Journal  for  the 
correspondence  of  our  friends.  Written  so  near  those  scenes 
of  revolt  and  massacre  which  have  sent  a  thrill  of  horror 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  Mr.  Ball's  letters  during 
the  last  few  months  have  been  unusually  interesting,  and  we 
should  be  quite  inexcusable  if  we  did  not  find  room  for  a  few 
extracts  referring  to  his  present  situation  and  prospects. 
Under  date  of  August  8,  he  presents  some  views  which, 
doubtless,  our  readers  have  found  confirmed  by  what  thej 
read  from  other  writers,  both  of  the  character  of  the  gov- 
ernment pf  India  and  of  the  probable  issue  of  the  revolt 

<<  When  I  last  wrote  you,  we  were  hoping  that  the  fearful  vossa- 
rection  of  the  native  troops,  which  hung  as  a  black  cloud  over 
India,  was  soon  to  spend  itself.  Now  we  dread  to  think  that  the 
storm  has  but  fairly  begun  ;  and  that  it  may  be  a  full  year,  or  pe^ 
haps  several  years,  before  the  last  bolt  of  the  tornado  shall  have 
fallen,  and  public  works,  education,  and  religious  enterprise  re- 
turn to  their  usual  course.  •  It  seems  too  much  to  say  that  Eog^ 
land  has  got  India  to  reconquer ;  but  something  not  very  far  from 


EXTBACTS  FBOM  LETTBBS.  261 

nil  have  to  be  done.  The  old  Mahometan  capital  of  Hindos- 
iie  city  of  Delhi,  has  been  defying  all  the  troops  that  British 
can  bring  under  its  walls,  now  since  May  last  For  a  time, 
y  from  day  to  day  in  Calcatta  was  that  Delhi  had  been  re- 
,  and  thousands  of  natives,  men,  women,  and  children,  put  to 
7ord.  But  the  green  flag  of  Islam  still  floats  over  her  ample 
1 ;  which  is  said  to  contain  such  immense  supplies  of  ammu- 
,  that  it  will  not  be  exhausted  in  three  years, '  even  should  a 
»f  rounds  (100,000)  be  fired  every  day.' 
knowing  what  she  should  have  known  of  the  native  character, 
hat  fearful  power  a  &lse  and  bloody  faith  had  over  the  native 
and  heart,  it  seems  unaccountable  that  England — or  rather 
Sast  India  Company  —  should  have  intrusted  her  high- 
d  piles  of  treasure,  and  above  all  so  many  precious  lives,  to 
H)  and  Mussulman  protection.  What  a  lesscm  on  the  neces- 
f  maintaining  always  and  in  all  events  the  power  of  self-de- 
!  Some  of  England's  ablest  Indian  governors  and  generals, 
»ir  Charies  Napier,  and  more  lately  Lord  Dalhoune,  have  re- 
Uy  warned  the  government  of  India,  but  warned  in  vain,  not 
rt,  as  she  has  more  and  more  of  late  years  parted,  with  the 
'  of  self-protection.  Having  trusted  the  untrustworthy,  she 
19  miserably  paying  the  penalty  of  her  over-confidence.  It 
heaper,  both  as  to  lives  and  money,  for  England  to  arm  In- 
idnst  India,  and  call  it  her  rule  and  her  kingdom.  But  now 
r  seventy  regiments,  seventy  thousand  men,  are  in  open  rebel- 
rainst  Britain,  — -  iEmd,  what  is  worst  of  aU,  every  man  of  them 
British  musket  in  his  hand  and  a  British  sword  by  his  side, 
millions  are  also  sympathizing  with  them.  Whpe  I  write, 
nnd  of  the  cavalry  bugle  and  of  the  infantry  drum  are  in  my 
-even  Calcutta  having  become  a  camp  :  hanging  rebels  from 
ng  to  morning  on  the  glacis  of  her  Fort  William,  — the  lar- 
>rt  in  the  world,  needing  twenty-five  thousand  men  to  man  its 
rts,  and  which,  for  years  past,  Englishmen  were  growing 
ik  was  the  most  useless  piece  of  fortification  on  earth !  —  Let 
ica  take  warning  from  this !  —  The  present  Govemor-Gen- 
'  India,  Lord  Canning,  —  one  of  England's  greatest  names, — 
irdly  mounted  his  vice-regal  throDe,  hardly  passed  the  thresh* 


262  EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS. 

old  of  his  Oriental  palace,  before  he  was  called  on  to  withdraw 

the  freedom  of  the  press  and  proclaim  martial  law  throughout  his 

dominions.     He  has  been  moved  to  do  this,  and  most  reluctantly,  I 

doubt  not,  he  has  done  it.    It  is  seen  at  once,  by  all  who  come  in 

contact  with  Lord  Canning,  that  he  is  by  nature  a  man  of  peace. 

His  whole  desire  is  for  peaceful  measures  and  peaceful  counsels. 

Evidently  an  entirely  new  page  in  human  life  and  human  nature 

is  opened  to  him  in  this  *  strange  and  most  unnatural  rebellion.' 

It  appeared  to  him,  doubtless,  that  England  —  through  the  East 

India  Company  which  he  represents — was  only  acting  the  part  of 

educator  and  benefactor,  bringing  in  *  equity  and  happiness.'   She 

was  overcoming  evil  with  good,  and  binding  Hindoo  hearts  by 

gratitude,  the  mightiest  of  all  bonds,  to  the  foot  of  her  throne. 

Only  yesterday  Lord  Canning  consented  to  the  disarming  of  his 

body-guard,  about  three  hundred  picked  men  of  the  native  troops.' 

Lady  Canning  also  has  even  excited  the  indignation  of  EnglishttieD 

long  resident  in  India  by  her  over-hopefulness  of  native  character, 

and  her  occasional  expressions  of  tender  consideration  for  *tiie 

poor  fellows,'  the  Sepoys,  particularly  those  who  tramp  about  the 

palace  on  guard  day  and  night ;  and  whom  old  Indian  EnglishnieB 

have  feared  would  take  her  life,  or  that  of  Lord  Canning,  froo 

week  to  week,  for  some  time  past    At  last  they  have  been  difl- 

armed,  and  told  to  walk  their  rounds  with  no  weapon  but  aranuod 

in  their  hands. 

"  I  fear  you  will  think  I  am  writing  you  anything  but  a  miaaw*' 
ary  letter ;  but,  believe  me,  I  am  doing  my  best  to  give  yoa  tbe 
*  form  and  pressure '  of  the  hour,  as  it  is  even  in  our  churches.  Iub 
speaking  of  that  which  absorbs  every  thought,  on  Sundays  asoB 
week-days,  of  every  man  in  India ;  yes,  of  every  one,  unless  he 
be  weeping  over  the  news  of  the  shocking  mutilation  and  violent , 
death  of  a  brother,  son,  or  daughter,  or  making  arrangements  to 
receive  the  widow  or  orphan  whom  he  hopes  may  have  been  sent 
off  from  this  or  that  city,  which  report  tells  him  has  fallen  into  ^ 
hands  of  murderous  hordes  that  for  hundreds  of  miles  are  plonda^ 
ing  and  destroying  all  before  them. 

'*  Missionaries  in  all  parts  of  Upper  India  stand  bravely  still  ift 
prayer,  or  yield  to  the  storm  and  seek  safety  in  flight.    Testae 


EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTEBS.  268 

lay's  paper  contained  accounts  of  two  missionaries  who  had  been 
murdered  in  two  difierent  cities,  Delhi  and  Benares,  near  their 
mission  schools.     Probably  not  less  than  a  dozen  missionary  fami- 
lies have  been  cut  to  pieces  by  fanatical  Mahometan  insurgents 
within  eight  or  ten  weeks  past.    In  some  cases  children  have  been 
killed  in  ways  too  horrible  to  tell,  before  the  eyes  of  their  parents, 
who  have  been  afterwards  sacrificed,  lost  working  its  will  while 
life  yet  lingered,  or  before  the  dying  agony  was  stilled  by  the  mer- 
ciful cimeter.    One  mother,  whose  husband  had  been  cut  to  the 
ground  at  her  side,  and  left  for  dead  (though  he  still  lives),  had 
her  life  saved  by  the  mute  appeal  of  her  child,  looking  up  from 
the  arms  of  its  mother  who  had  already  been  stunned  by  a  club. 
A  case  like  this  is  one  struggling  ray  of  light  through  thick  dark- 
ness, —  the  darkness  of  a  false  religion  of  blood  and  hate ;  for  the 
^^ases  are  multiplied  where  children  have  been  cruelly  and  brutally 
maimed,  or  actually  burned  to  death.    May  God  defend  the  right, 
the  Christian  cause,  and  soon  bring  these  horrors  to  an  end  ! 

"  That  a  mighty  change  is  to  come  over  India,  and  that  erelong 
and  for  good,  few  men  can  doubt  As  Christians,  we  are  bound  to 
*liope  all  things';  and  in  this  instance  we  may  wisely  and  reason- 
ably hope  that  there  is  to  be  a  far  more  effective  style  of  mission- 
ary work  done  in  India  from  this  crisis  in  her  history,  than  has 
^er  yet  been  done.  It  would  extendefay  letter  too  far  to  say  now 
on  what  grounds  the  most  experienced  missionaries  in  India  base 
that  hope.  Of  that  hereafter.  God  is  to  bring  good  out  of  this 
fearful  evil ;  and  we  who  are  privileged  to  he  the  instruments  in 
his  hands  shall  be  rich  indeed  :  great  will  be  our  reward  in  heav- 
en. Let  us  the  more  earnestly  work  together,  on  either  side  of 
the  world,  for  the  furtherance  of  the  good  news  of  salvation,  —  the 
word  that  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  are  more  ready  to  give 
to  India  than  we. 

'*  Several  subjects  were  in  my  mind  to  write  to  you  about  by 
this  mail,  but  I  must  stop  here  for  the  present.  Rejoice  with  me 
that  the  work  of  our  mission  has  been  nowise  interrupted,  nor 
seems  likely  to  be,  except  that  our  Sunday  attendance  —  always 
small  —  has  been  somewhat  diminished  by  our  friends  being  out 
with  their  muskets  guarding  the  city  against  any  sudden  uprising. 


264  EXTRACTS  FBOM  LBTTEBB. 

Old  and  new  friends,  yoong  men,  seekers  of  religions  truth,  con- 
tinue to  fill  nearly  one  half  of  every  day  with  their  studies  and  con- 
versation in  my  room.     Some  of  those  who  have  been  previously 
with  me  still  come  to  repeat  portions  of  Scripture.     The  new-com- 
ers usually  beg  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  and  every  oopj  that 
you  sent  me  out  is  now  gone.    I  read  to  them  portions  of  the 
Bible,  the  Old  and  the  New,  till  oftentimes  they  feel  their  hearts 
touched  by  the  truth  ;  and  it  would  do  you  good  to  see  how  vari- 
ously it  affects  them, — with  joy,  surprise,  regret.     An  excellent 
young  man,  Onongo  Mohun  Mittra,  who  had  applied  to  us  for  bap- 
tism, but  to  whom  Mr.  Pratt  advised  some  delay  and  further  sel^ 
scrutiny,  went  and  was  baptized  by  Dr.  Boaz,  one   of  the  most 
liberal  of  the  Calcutta  Trinitarian  Missionaries,  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  some  of  our  native  friends.    I  am  happy  to  say,  howevo", 
that  Onongo  has  not  ceased  to  call  on  me,  or  to  read  Unitarian 
books.    He  says  his  soul  is  free  of  man,  as  it  is  bound  to  God  and 
to  Christ.    God  be  with  and  bless  you  all." 

In  his  letter  o£  August  22,  Mr.  Dall  alludes  to  his  Fourth 
Half-Yearly  Report,  and  to  the  Memoir  of  the  Mission  in 
the  time  of  Hammohun  Boy,  of  both  of  which  we  haTe 
given  an  account  in  a  previous  article,  and  informs  us  of  an 
interesting  correspondency  he  has  had  with  fiiends  in  Eng- 
land. 

*<  Our  Fourth  Half- Yearly  Report  should  have  been  out  of  press 
by  this  time.  By  adding  an  Appendix  we  are  doing  double  duty ; 
and  a  slight  delay  is  the  consequence.  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to 
send  you  by  this  mail  these  forty  pages  which  we  have  reprinted 
of  the  first  seven  or  eight  years'  history  of  the  Calcutta  Mission, 
in  the  hands  of  Rev.  William  Adam  and  Rammohun  Roy,  and 
others.  Its  contents  will  surely  interest  our  friends  in  America* 
Few  of  them  may  be  aware  that  efibrts  to  establish  our  pure  foim 
of  faith  were  persevered  in  by  English  and  Asiatic  Unitarians,  fiom 
1821  to  the  year  1828.  The  history  of  that  early  struggle  was 
given  us,  from  among  his  father's  papers  and  pamphlets,  by  the 
son  of  one  of  those  early  Calcutta  contenders  for  the  faith.    Thai 


EXTBAOTS  FBOM  LETTERS.  265       _ 

son,  an  Anglo-Indian  gentleman,  married  to  a  jewel  of  an  English 
wife,  has  a  family  of  three  or  four  young  children,  and  is  a  regu- 
lar subscriber  to  our  funds.  His  wife,  who  has  belonged  to  the 
English  Church,  tells  me  she  is  quite  satisfied  with  the  views  pro- 
pounded in  Eliot's  Doctrines  of  Christianity.  She  has  attended 
once,  with  her  husband,  at  our  Mission  Room,  but  the  care  of  twin 
boys,  a  few  months  old,  for  a  young  English  mother,  in  this  cli- 
mate, is  care  enough.  I  trust  we  may  consider  this  pleasant  family 
as  one  of  the  permanent  ones  of  our  little  pastoral  circle, — a  circle, 
I  am  happy  to  say,  which  numbers  a  good  proportion  of  bright 

diildren  in  it,  a  round  dozen  of  whom  have  English  faces 

"  I  am  getting  a  little  anxious  as  to  the  convejfance  of  the  two 
young  men  whom  you  authorize  me  to  send  to  Boston.  That 
eoveted  permission  arrived  too  late  in  the  spring  of  this  year  for 
me  to  think  of  starting  them  off  for  New  England  until  the  return 
of  our  cold  weather,  say  about  January  or  February,  1858  ;  so  as 
to  place  them  in  your  midst  about  the  time  of  the  May  Anniver- 
saries and  the  opening  of  sununer.  The  step  is  so  great  a  one, 
especially  for  a  Bengalee,  who  seldom  has  more  than  a  child's 
will  or  persistency  of  purpose,  that  I  hold  myself  ready  for  dis- 
appointment should  they  flatly  refuse  to  go  on  board  when  the 
ship  is  ready  to  weigh  anchor.  Friends  may  then  interfere  in  un- 
anticipated ways,  and  no  one  can  tell  the  result.  I  want  you  to 
prepare  our  friends  at  home  for  this  disappointment.  Should  it 
come,  I  shall  regard  it  as  a  direction  of  Providence,  and  *  Learn  to 
labor  and  to  wait,*  Though  now  there  are  five  or  six  men  who 
say  they  have  decided  to  go  and  long  to  go  to  America,  and  pray 
that  the  choice  of  a  companion  for  Takoor  Dass  Roy  may  fall  on 
them,  they  may  all  fall  back.  Whether  it  be  so  or  not,  it  is  our 
work,  and  our  immediate  work,  to  provide  a  passage  for  them 
across  the  ocean." 

Mr.  Ball's  last  letter  bears  the  date  of  September  9.  We 
think  it  will  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  that 
we  have  published. 

**  If  you  believe  what  you  find  in  the  newspapers  concerning  the 
TOL.  T.  NO.  n.  23 


266  EXTRACTS   FROM   LETTERS. 

disorganized  state  of  British  India,  and  the  fearful  progress  of  the 
insurrection,   you  will  watch  the    mails  with    some    anxiety  to 
know  whether  we  are  yet  alive  ;   and  open  our  letters  expecting 
to  find,  that,  at  the  very  least,  all  our  missionary  operations  are 
hrought  to  a  stand.     Let  me  say  then,  first  of  all,  that  our  special 
prospects  of  usefulness  as  servants  of  Christ  were  never  brighter 
than  at  this  moment,  nor  our  machinery  turning  out  more  smoothly 
its  appointed  work.    There  is  plenty  of  trouble  in  the  interior  of 
the  country,  —  at  Delhi,  Lucknow,  Allahabad,  &c.  ;  and  our  ears, 
though  not  our  hearts,  I  trust,  have  become  weary  of  tales  of 
slaughter  and  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood.     No  family  that 
has  been  long  in  India  is  not  now  in  deep  mourning  ;  and  those 
who  have  not  been  certified  of  the  murder  of  some  of  their  dear 
ones  in  the  interior  cities  are  held  in  an  agony  of  suspense,  which 
none  who  have  it  not  in  their  thoughts  all  day  and  their  dreams  all 
night  can  understand  or  appreciate.     In  order  to  secure  every 
available  force  wherewith  to  recruit  her  scattered  regiments,  the 
voice  of  England  in  India  is  that  every  man  should  give  hin^selfto 
the  fight,  and  send  down  his  women  and  children  to  Calcutta.   Sach 
is  the  government  order  for  all  the  wide  districts  in  which  martial 
law  has  been  proclaimed.     At  such  a  time,  it  is  sad  to  hear  from 
Christian  men,  and  quite  as  truculently  from  Christian  women,  the 
single  cry  of  *  Vengeance !  Vengeance  !    Kill,  starve,  bum,  annihi- 
late the  rebels  !     Let  not  one  soul  of  the  one  hundred  thousand  in 
Delhi  escape  to  tell  the  tale  of  this  rebellion !     Let  us  emulate 
them  in  horrors,  and  teach  them  what  it  is  to  torture  or  defile  an 
English  man  or  woman ! '    Such  is  the  almost  universal  cry, 
through  the  columns  of  a  manacled  press,  and  from  house  to  hoose. 
I  find  myself  almost  alone  in  pleading  that  now  is  the  time  to  show 
India,  and  all  Asia,  the  difference  between  Christian  and  heathen 
justice.     Stern  Christian  justice  should  certainly  be  meted  out  to 
the  rebels.     They  are  over- fed,  petted,  and  spoiled  children,  who 
have  turned  against  their  unwise  guardians.     Unstable  as  water, 
they  have  no  deep-rooted  hatred  to  British  supremacy.    If  they 
had,  that  very  hate  would  give  them  a  power  of  union  for  the 
want  of  which  they  make  no  effectual  stand  against  even  the  most 
despicable  minorities  of  their  opponents.      A  hundred  and  fifty 


f 


BXTBACTS   FROM  LETTEBS.  267 

men  —  who  know  what  they  would  be  at,  as  British  soldiers, 
well  officered,  generally  do  —  will  successfully  oppose  four  or  five 
thousand  *na  tives '  in  open  conflict,  lose  perhaps  two  or  three  of 
their  number,  and  kill  four  or  five  hundred,  driving  all  before  them 
into  the  jungle. 

'*  Meantime  Calcutta  is  almost  as  quiet  as  in  her  most  palmy 
days ;  if  we  except  the  sound  of  the  infantry  bugle  and  the  boom- 
ing of  the  artillery  drill  from  morning  to  morning.     Though  it 
may  take  some  time  to  tread  out  the  last  spark  of  this  terrible 
*  mutiny,'  the  wisest  heads  seem  to  think  that  the  conflagration 
will  be  like  that  of  a  haystack,  and  sink  back  to  darkness  and  ex- 
tinction as  rapidly  as  it  rose.    Shall  I  confess  to  you  that  the 
thought  which  haunts  me  just  now  is  this,  namely,  England  has 
got  more  than  her  arms  full  to  carry  India  along  as  God  intends 
she  shall  go.    She  greatly  needs  a  coadjutor.     Would  to  God  she 
might  be  wise  enough  to  say  to  her  daughter,  the  United  States, 
Here,  take  one  of  these  mighty  presidencies  and  develop  its  re- 
Boarces,  materially,  intellectually,  religiously !     Let  us  provoke 
one  another  to  good  works.    To  do  good  is  to  get  good.     Come, 
show,  side  by  side  with  us  Britains,  how  '  Christianity  pours  con- 
tempt upon  dominion,  except  as  an  instrument  by  which  the  highest 
niay  serve  the  lowest ! '    If  it  should  prove  that  Britain  really  has 
not  men  and  treasure  enough  to  reconquer  India,  God  grant,  I  say, 
ta  America  may  come  teethe  rescue.     Her  commerce  is  largely 
here  already.    Let  her  send  her  education  and  her  religion  ;  her 
^laberty,  Holiness,  and  Love.'    Nowhere  on  earth  are  opportu- 
nities of  usefulness  and  genuine  redemption  so  rife  as  they  are 
here.    God  evidently  intends  that  the  ends  of  the  world  should 
o^t,  and  the  East  and  the  West  bring  forth  the  new  man,  the 
nnion  of  the  devout  with  the  practical,  such  as  the  world  has  never 
^n  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles ;  and  then  only  in  a  handful  of 

those  who  stood  nearest  to  Jesus 

'*  Thank  God  in  our  behalf,  that,  while  all  is  war  and  blood  around 
ns,  and  many  missions  have  entirely  stopped,  ours  is  progressing 
and  like  to  go  forward  without  interruption.  God  is  good,  and  of 
ft  troth  He  is  with  us.    All  well.     Love  to  all.    Pray  for  us." 


270  HOMB  )a88IOKABT  BSPOBT. 

no  pains  to  have  others  interested  in  the  objects  of  my  mis- 
sion, and  did  all  he  conld  in  aid  of  the  drcolation  of  oih' 
religions  publications.  There  was  a  good  attendance  all  daj. 
I  was  higihlj  pleased  with  the  general  appearance  of  the  So- 
ciety, and  particularly  so  with  the  interest  manifested  in  the 
Sunday  School,  under  the  efficient  superintendence  of  its 
head,  and  a  well-instructed  body  of  teachers.  I  could  not 
help  giving  an  audible  expression  of  my  thanks  to  the  vohm- 
tary  choir,  whose  sweet  voices  and  admirable  skin  gave  a 
happy  and  most  impressive  tone  to  all  of  the  services. 

At  the  dose  of  the  morning's  service,  a  liberal  oolledaon 
was  taken  up  for  the  use  of  the  Associatioa. 

Number  of  inhabitants,  6,000 ;  average  attendance,  200 ; 
churchnnembers,  50;  Sunday  scholars,  90;  teaeher8,14; 
library,  500  volumes.  Other  churches :  1  Baptist^  1  Metho- 
dist, 1  Universalist,  1  Orthodox,  1  Catholic 

Grotimj  October  4,  1857. — This  is  one  of  oor  most 
beautiful  rural  districts.  Preached  all  day  in  behalf  of  the 
Association ;  explained  my  plans  for  the  circulation  of  books ; 
and  afterwards  obtained  a  liberal  collection.  In  the  even- 
ing attended  a  social  religious  meeting  in  the  vestry,  and 
assbted  the  pastor.  Rev.  C.  Nightingale,  in  the  services. 
The  day  was  very  pleasant;  attendance  good;  and  every- 
thing demonstrated  a  useful  and  well-appreciated  nunistiy. 

The  first  settlement  of  Groton  was  in  1655.  Number 
of  inhabitants,  2,700 ;  average  attendance  at  the  Unitarian 
church,  200 ;  members  of  the  church,  80 ;  Sunday  sdiolars, 
75;  teachers,  12;  Sunday-school  library,' 500  volumes; 
parish  library,  600  volumes ;  fund  $  12,000. 

Manchester^  J^.  JZ,  October  11,  1857.  —  Our  manufiu^ 
turing  cities  and  towns  are  always  the  first  to  show  aensl- 


HOME  MISSIONABY  BBPOBT.  271 

tiveness  in  seasons  of  financial  embarrassment.  Of  course 
this  place  is  burdened  in  this  respect ;  and  hence  those  of  our 
faith  were  unprepared  to  render  as  great  assistance  to  our 
religious  enterprises  as  formerly.  But  thej  did  what  they 
could.  Preached  all  day;  urged  the  circulation  of  our 
books ;  I  received  every  encouragement  to  this  branch  of 
my  labors.  A  collection  is  to  be  taken  up  next  Sunday. 
Brother  Gage  has  labored  most  faithfully  and  acceptably. 
The  Society  will  compare  favorably  in  respect  to  numbers 
and  Christian  efforts  with  neighboring  congregations.  The 
Sunday  school  is  not  quite  so  flourishing  as  could  be  wished. 
Number  of  inhabitants,  18,500.  Average  attendance,  200 ; 
members  of  the  church,  40 ;  Sunday  scholars,  62 ;  teachers, 
8 ;  library,  667  volumes ;  prospective  fund,  $  3,000.  Other 
churches :  4  Orthodox,  3  Methodist,  2  Baptist,  1  Free-Will 
Baptist,  1  Universalist,  1  Episcopalian,  1  Catholic 

Syracuse^  Ni  JI,  October  13,14,  and  15.  —  Considering 
the  distance  travelled  over  by  most  of  those  in  attendance 
this  evening  (the  13th)  at  the  church,  and  taking  into 
view  the  alarming  condition  of  commercial  affairs  existing 
over  nearly  the  whole  country,  it  was  quite  a  relief  to  the 
friends  who  had  invited  the  members  of  the  Convention  to 
their  homes,  that  so  many  presented  themselves  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Reception.  The  only  drawback  was  the  sudden 
change  of  weather.  But  notwithstanding  the  prevalent 
tempest  and  darkness  abroad,  it  was  all  sunshine  and  peace 
within  the  sacred  enclosure,  at  the  even-tide  hour  of  prayer. 

The  introductory  discourse,  by  Rev.  Charles  H.  Brigham 
of  Taunton,  gave  the  key-note  to  the  tone  of  thought  and 
feeling.  It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  allude  to  one  peculi- 
arity in  the  discourse,  —  its  freedom  from  all  denominational 
laudation.    The  discussion  of  the  questions  submitted  to 


272  HOME  MIS8IONART  BEPOBT. 

the  Convention  bj  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  was 
of  the  most  useful  and  attractive  character.  At  the  Festi- 
val on  Wednesday  evening  the  display  of  fruits,  flowers, 
and  sacred  emblems  showed  most  excellent  taste  on  the 
part  of  the  ladies,  whilst  the  ample  and  various  refresh- 
ments which  they  provided  received  cordial  attention  from 
their  numerous  guests. 

The  closing  services  at  the  church  were  conducted  by 
Rev.  John  Cordner  of  Montreal,  and  were  in  beautiful  har- 
mony with  the  religious  exercises  of  the  week.  The  subject, 
'^  The  Love  of  God/'  was  strikingly  presented,  and  so  full 
of  unction  that  not  one  could  have  failed  to  have  felt  the 
preciousness  of  the  truth  forcibly  conveyed  by  this  serious- 
minded  and  convincing  preacher.  Prayer  and  conference 
meetings  were  held  on  Wednesday  and  Thursday  mornings, 
at  eight  o'clock.  But,  owing  to  the  early  hour  and  the  in- 
clemency of  the  weather,  the  attendance  was  small.  The 
same  cause  prevented  any  very  extensive  sale  of  books.  I 
was  fortunate,  however,  in  the  arrangements  I  made  with 
several  responsible  friends  for  their  circulation  through  West- 
ern New  York,  which  has  always  proved  one  of  the  best  of 
fields  for  Unitarian  colportage. 

Number  of  inhabitants,  27,000 ;  average  attendance, 
350 ;  communicants,  40  ;  Sunday  scholars,  50 ;  teachers,  7 ; 
library,  375  volumes.  Other  churches :  3  Presbyterian,  1 
Congregational,  3  Baptist,  3  Methodist,  1  African  Metho- 
dist, 3  Episcopalian,  4  Catholic,  4  Protestant  German. 

Union  Springs,  Cayuga  LakcyN,  T.,  October  18, 1857. — 
I  felt  myself  very  fortunate,  whilst  at  Syracuse,  in  renew- 
ing an  acquaintance  with  Rev.  William  O.  Cushing ;  and  in 
being  introduced  to  Mr.  William  Clarke,  a  parishioner  of  Mr. 
Cushing,  both  residents  at  the  Springs,  and  both  connected 


HOME  MISSIOKABY  REPORT.  273 

with  the  "  Christiaji  *'  Church  in  that  place.  At  the  close  of 
the  Autumnal  Convention,  I  accompanied  these  friends  to 
their  homes,  that  I  might  on  the  Lord*s  day  following  oc- 
cupy Brother  Cushing's  pulpit,  and  set  in  order  before  his 
people  the  objects  of  my  mission,  and  enlist  their  sympathy 
in  its  behalf.  No  one  could  possibly  receive  a  warmer  wel- 
come than  was  extended.  No  one  could  have  had  more  at- 
tentive hearers.  At  the  morning  service,  the  importance  of 
circulating  far  and  wide  a  more  liberal  theology,  and  a  Chris- 
tian literature  free  from  all  sectarian  preferences,  was  urged. 
The  plans  proposed  for  effecting  so  desirable  an  end  were 
kindly  received,  and  will  cause  inquiry  for  the  publications 
of  the  Association.  In  the  aflemoon,  I  delivered  a  Temper- 
ance Address  before  the  Children's  Temperance  Society  of 
the  town.  The  attendance  was  very  good.  In  the  evening 
preached  to  a  very  full  house.  The  "  Christian  '*  denomi- 
naticm,  now  one  of  the  largest  in  the  country,  is  well  repre- 
sented, numerically,  intellectually,  and  spiritually,  in  the 
Empire  State.  It  is  liberal  in  its  ecclesiastical  organization. 
In  matters  of  faith  and  practice,  it  appeals  to  the  Gospel, 
and  exacts  from  its  members  compliance  with  no  other  for- 
mulary than  the  Bible. 

Number  of  inhabitants,  2,100 ;  average  attendance  at 
the  Christian  Church,  150;  church-members,  40;  Sunday 
scholars,  35;  teachers,  6;  library,  200  volumes.  Other 
churches :  1  Presbyterian,  1  Methodist,  1  Catholic,  1  Baptist, 
1  Friends  Orthodox,  1  Friends  Hicksite. 

South  Portsmouth,  JR,  J,  November  15  and  22,  1857.  — 
Visited  this  place  at  the  request  of  several  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  "  Christian "  Church,  the  pulpit  being  vacant. 
It  was  thought  desirable  that  all  friends  of  religious  free- 
dom, however  denonunationally  divided,  should  becltne  bet- 


274  HOME   MISSIONART  BEPOBT. 

ter  acquainted  with  each  other,  and  unite  their  efforts.  It 
was  exceedingly  agreeable  to  me  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
repeating  my  visit  to  this  Island,  where  the  first  twenty-one 
years  of  my  life  were  spent;  and  to  receive  a  welcome 
from  those  who  had  grown  up  with  me  amidst  the  same 
scenes  of  natural  beauty. 

The  first  introduction  of  the  religious  opinions  of  those 
who  bear  the  name  of  Christians  into  this  town,  was  in  the 
winter  of  1807  -  8.     But  not  having  the  prestige  of  num- 
bers and  of  wealth,  the  Society  failed  of  reaching  any  per- 
manent organization  until  1821,  when  the  building  of  a 
meeting-house  was  commenced.    A  member  of  the  present 
church,  who  is  fully  acquainted  with  the  whole  history  of 
its  affairs,  thus  describes  the  circumstances  connected  with 
this  first  movement.    '^To  obtain  sufficient  aid  from  oar 
mixed  community,  it  was  imperative  that  it  should  be  ft 
free  house.     In  forming  a  constitution,  Kev.  Dr.  Channing 
(who  usually  passed  his  summers  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
who  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  religious  concerns  of  the 
people)  proposed  an  article  in  the  following  words,  which 
was  incorporated  in  the  Charter:  ^^The  house  in  contem- 
plation shall  be  free  to  all  denominations  of  Christians,  pro- 
vided they  be  men  of  unblemished  moral  character,  and  are 
regarded  as  pious  and  apt  to  teach  in  the  churches  to  which 
they  belong."     Dr.  Channing  gave  the  plan  of  the  house, 
and  contributed  liberally  to  aid  in  its  erection.     He  often 
supplied  the  pulpit  (this  was  during  his  summer  vacation). 
When  we  had  other  preachers,  he  was  an  attentive  hearer; 
he  occasionally  administered  the  communion.     During  his 
life  he  regularly  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  ministry. 
It  is  continued  by  one  who  remembers  how  strongly  he  wa3 
attached  to  this  humble  place  of  worship. 

Sooi^after  my  arrival,  Saturday  evening,  I  attended  » 


HOME  MISSIONARY  REPOET.  275 

conference  meeting  at  the  church.  The  morning  of  the 
Sabbath  was  devoted  to  Sunday-school  exercises,  admira- 
bly conducted  by  the  several  teachers.  At  the  close,  I  ad- 
dressed the  whole  school.  In  the  afternoon  and  evening 
I  preached  to  full  houses,  particularly  in  the  aflemoon, 
when  every  seat  seemed  to  be  occupied.  At  the  close  of 
the  afternoon  service,  I  presented  for  consideration  the 
publications  of  the  Association,  and  urged  the  need  of  their 
wider  circulation.  The  Wednesday  and  Saturday  even- 
ings following  (November  15th  and  18th)  were  devoted 
to  conference  meetings  at  the  church.  On  Sunday  morn- 
ing (November  2 2d),  preached  for  Rev.  Mr.  Brooks,  at 
Newport,  to  a  large  and  most  attentive  audience.  Returned 
to  Portsmouth  (five  miles)  in  time  for  the  afternoon  ser- 
vice at  Union  Church.  Preached  at  the  same  place  in  the 
evening,  when  the  house  was  entirely  filled.  The  Society 
is  in  want  of  a  minister,  fully  able  "  rightly  to  divide  the 
word  of  truth,"  in  a  free-spoken  manner.  Their  means 
are  small,  and  their  purses  are  quite  light;  but  they 
have  large  hearts  and  hospitable  homes. 

Number  of  inhabitants,  1,850 ;  average  attendance,  120 ; 
members  of  the  church,  50 ;  Sunday  scholars,  60 ;  teachers, 
12.     Other  churches:  2  Episcopal,  1  Methodist,  1  Friends. 

Sterlingy  Mass.y  November  29,  1857.  —  By  request  of  the 
pastor.  Rev.  W.  H.  Knapp,  I  have  occupied  his  pulpit  to- 
day, and  discoursed  upon  the  general  plans  and  needs  of 
the  Association.  It  was  determined  to  take  up  a  collection 
about  the  1st  of  January,  1858.  Sterling  is  one  of  our  strong- 
est country  parishes.  The  house  of  worship  is  very  commo- 
dious ;  and  yet  every  pew  is  occupied.  The  good  old  habit 
of  going  to  church,  forenoon  and  afternoon,  is  still  kept  up ; 
and  it  gratified  me  exceedingly,  to  have  an  opportunity  of 


276         BCEETINQS   OF  THE  EXEOUTIYB  COMMITTEE. 

greeting  old  friends,  who  had  travelled,  in  coming  to  church, 
four,  five,  and  six  miles.      I  addressed  the  Sunday  school, 
afler  the  morning  service.     In  the  afternoon,  after  the  bene- 
diction, I  unfolded  my  plans,  concerning  the  best  methods  of 
distributing  our  publications.     In  the  evening  I  delivered  a 
temperance  lecture  before  a  large  audience,  gathered  from 
the  several  societies.     Number  of  inhabitants,  1,900 ;  aveiv 
age  attendance,  400  ;  church-members,  131 ;  Sunday  school, 
140 ;  teachers,  25 ;  library,  700  volumes.    Other  churches: 
1  Baptist,  1  Orthodox. 


MEETINGS  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

September  14,  1857.  —  Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Fai^ 
banks.  Hall,  Whipple,  Rogers,  Alger,  Fearing,  and  the 
Secretary. 

Letters  of  thanks  for  the  reception  of  books  were  read 
from  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Unions  in  Providence,  B.  l 
and  in  Troy,  N.  Y. 

The  Secretary  submitted  some  correspondence  he  had  had 
with  Rev.  Dr.  Beard  of  Manchester,  England,  with  refe^ 
ence  to  a  wider  circulation  of  our  literature  in  that  coontry; 
and  proposed  plans,  for  new  editions  of  our  books  to  meet 
this  hope,  were  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Publicatioiis. 

Some  discussion  arose  with  reference  to  the  duty  of  the 
Committee  to  respond  to  the  earnest  appeal  for  aid  firon 
Transylvania.  The  letters  from  that  country  will  be  foand 
on  another  page  in  this  Journal.  It  was  filially  voted  to 
send  a  circular  to  the  churches ;  but  before  this  was  dooe^ 


fe 


MEETINGS    OP   THE   EXECUTIVE   COMMITTEE.         277 

the  country  experienced  the  gi;eat  financial  embarrassment 
which  has  marked  the  last  season,  and  this  proposal  was 
reconsidered  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  as  we  have  already 
stated  under  another  head. 

A  manuscript  entitled  "Seven  Stormy  Sundays"  was 
received,  and  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Publica- 
tions to  report  at  a  subsequent  meeting.  To  the  same 
Committee,  with  full  power,  was  referred  Mr.  Sears's  manu- 
script, entitled  "  Athanasia :  or,  Foregleams  of  Immortality." 

October  19,  1857.  —  Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Fair- 
banks, Hedge,  Clark,  Rogers,  Fearing,  Whipple,  and  the 
Secretary. 

The  Secretary  laid  before  the  Board  letters  received 
from  Rev.  Mr.  Stanley,  of  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  rel- 
ative to  the  sale  of  our  books  in  that  country,  and  pro- 
posing terms  of  purchase.  It  was  voted  to  accept  the 
same,  and  the  Secretary  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  send- 
ing a  box  of  books  to  the  gentleman  above  named. 

It  was  voted  to  supply  Rev.  Dr.  Beard  with  an  edition 
of  one  thousand  copies  of  "  The  Harp  and  the  Cross." 

Several  applications  for  aid  to  feeble  societies  came  up 
for  consideration,  some  of  which  were  voted,  and  others 
were  laid  upon  the  table  for  future  action. 

A  proposition  from  C.  S.  Francis  &  Co.  of  New  York, 
relative  to  the  sale  of  one  of  their  publications,  was  referred 
to  the  Secretary,  with  full  power. 

It  was  voted  to  purchase  the  remainder  of  the  edition  of 
a  work  called  "Observations  on  the  Bible,"  published  in 
Boston  a  few  years  ago,  and  understood  to  be  from  the 
pen  of  a  distinguished  layman  of  this  city. 

November  11,  1857. — Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Hall, 
VOL.  v.  NO.  II.  24 


278        BiEETINGS   OP  THE   EXECUTIVE   COMMITTBE. 

Fairbanks,  Rogers,  Fearing,J3ellows,  Clark,  and  the  Secre- 
tary. 

Letters  from  Professor  Baur  and  Dr.  Lechler  of  Ger- 
many were  read,  expressing  thanks  for  the  gift  of  our 
books.  A  letter  likewise  was  communicated  from  Mr.  Bond 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  giving  an  encouraging  account  of 
the  sale  of  our  books,  and  of  the  hopeful  opening  at  Honolulu 
for  a  missionary.  Kev.  J.  C.  Smith,  who  has  been  sent  out  to 
enter  that  field  of  labor,  has  been  detained  several  weeks  at 
Marysville,  California,  by  illness,  but  hopes  were  entertained 
that  he  would  be  able  to  repair  at  once  to  Honolulu. 

Rev.  Mr.  Nute  appeared  b>efore  the  Committee,  to  give 
some  account  of  the  state  of  the  Society  in  Lawrence, 
Kansas.  After  listening  to  his  statements,  and  to  letters 
that  had  been  received  from  a  committee  of  the  Sodetj, 
it  was  voted  to  accept  the  proposals  presented  for  the  piu> 
chase  of  the  land  and  church,  and  the  Secretary  was  di- 
rected to  communicate  our  assent  to  the  Conmiittee  in  Law- 
rence. 

It  was  voted  that  Rev.  Mr.  Nute  be  requested  to  ascertain 
if  a  lot  of  land  can  be  obtained  for  a  church  in  Quindaro, 
Kansas,  and  if  so,  on  what  terms. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  279 


NOTICES  OF  BOOKS. 

Debt  and  Chrace,  as  related  to  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life,     By 
C.  F.  Hudson.    Boston:  J.  P.  Jewett  &  Co.     1857. 

This  is  another  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  Trinitarian  to  get  rid 
of  some  of  the  appalling  features  of  the  Orthodox  system  ;  and 
the  relief  which  Dr.  Edward  Beecher  finds  in  the  hypothesis  of  pre- 
existence,  Mr.  Hudson  finds  in  the  theory  of  the  final  annihilation 
of  the  wicked,  or  rather,  we  should  say,  it  is  not  so  much  the 
origin  of  sin  as  its  alleged  eternal  consequences,  which  is  the  stum- 
Uing-block  to  Mr.  Hudson.  On  this  point  he  feels  as  John  Foster 
felt,  and  as  thousands  of  Orthodox  believers  have  felt  and  still  feel, 
and  he  casts  round  to  find  some  escape  from  the  awful  doom  which 
hangs  oyer  the  impenitent.  He  quotes  an  extract  from  Rev.  Al- 
bert Barnes,  a  man  justly  characterized  as  one  of  marked  strength 
and  symmetry  of  character,  who  says  of  himself  that  his  mind  was 
"  tortured  "  by  this  dogma,  that  he  suflfered  "  anguish  of  spirit," 
that  he  is  "  struck  dumb,"  and  *^  it  is  all  dark,  dark,  dark  "  to  his 
soul.  This  would  be  Mr.  Hudson's  state  of  mind,  if  he  held  to  the 
common  Calvinistic  dogma.  But  he  believes  that  God  will  not 
continue  existence  to  the  wicked  merely  for  their  misery,  and  that 
the  Scripture  words  die,  death,  destruction,  perish,  used  with  refer- 
ence to  their  future  doom,  have  a  literal  signification.  His  book  is 
ihe  most  elaborate  treatise  on  this  subject  that  we  have  seen ;  and 
on  every  page  it  affords  proof  that  it  is  the  work  of  a  scholar,  who 
is  well  furnished  by  wide  reading  and  patient  investigation,  and 
who  has  the  modest  and  reverent  spirit  of  an  earnest  seeker  of 
truth.  We  say  this  without  inclination  to  his  conclusions.  The 
doctrine  of  annihilation  removes  one  awful  apprehension  only  to 
substitute  another.  We  turn  from  both  dogmas,  to  the  great  fact 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  in  which  we  see  the  retribution  of  a  fu- 
ture life  to  be  disciplinary  in  its  design  and  remedial  in  its  ulti- 
mate result. 


280  NOTICES    OF   BOOKS. 

Travels  and  Discoveries  in  North  and  Central  Africa  in  the  Years 
1849- 1855.  By  Henry  Barth.  In  3  toIs.  Vol.  II.  New 
York :  Harper  and  Brothers.     1857. 

In  this  second  volume  of  this  magnificent  contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  continent  of  Africa,  the  attention  of  the  reader  is 
confined  mostly  to  the  kingdom  of  B6rnu,  and  the  country  adjacent. 
B6rnu,  as  all  persons  familiar  with  the  map  of  Africa  recollect,  oc- 
cupies a  central  position  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  in  pene- 
trating the  country  so  as  to  reach  that  kingdom  Dr.  Barth  was 
enabled  to  give  us  a  full  account  of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  in- 
teresting African  tribes.     He  appears  to  have  improved  his  oppor- 
tunities most  faithfully.     Nothing  escaped  his  inquiry  and  obser- 
vation.    Beginning  with  the  history  of  the  B6rnu  kingdom,  and  a 
pedigree  of  its  rulers,  he  details  the  circumstances  of  his  approacli 
to  its  capital,  and  of  the  adventures  he  met  with  among  its  people. 
Their  domestic  establishments,  towns,  markets,  business,  curreo- 
cy,  provisions,  fruits,  animals,  industry,  manners,  slavery,  religion, 
language,  —  all  come  in  for  due  notice,  and  the  work  is  illustrated 
by  more  than  fifty  engravings,  from  drawings  taken  on  the  spot. 
We  have  read  this  second  volume  with  increasing  interest,  aod 
with  wonder  that  the  world,  even  to  this  enlightened  day,  bas 
known  so  little  of  the  resources,  productions,  capabilities,  and  semi- 
civilization  of  the  vast  African  continent.    These  travels  and  d»- 
coveries  were  undertaken  under  the  auspices  of  the  British  govern- 
ment ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  they  will  lead  to  the  opeoiog 
of  new  paths  of  a  lucrative  commerce  and  trade. 


Letters  on  the  Grounds  and  Objects  of  Religious  Knowledge;  o^ 
dressed  to  a  Young  Man  in  a  State  of  Indecision,  By  John  B' 
Beard,  D.D.     2  vols.     London. 

We  have  once  before  alluded  to  this  work.  The  importation  of 
a  large  number  of  copies  by  the  Association,  and  a  more  thorough 
perusal  of  its  pages,  invite  a  second  notice.  It  is  not  above  criti- 
cism. It  is  repetitious  ;  it  wants  condensation  ;  in  places  it  besn 
the  marks  of  haste  ;  it  was  evidently  prepared  for  oral  deliv^, 


NOTICES    OP   BOOKS.  281 

and  occasionally  lacks  the  repose  of  calm  scholarly  statement ;  the 
requirements  of  a  just  perspective  are  not  observed  ;  and  difficulties 
are  sometimes  too  briefly  treated,  while  points  capable  of  rhetorical 
effect  are  diffusely  elaborated.  But  it  has  merits  which  s.urmount 
all  these  objections.  First  of  all,  it  is  readable,  having  been  writ- 
ten in  an  animated  and  interesting  style ;  it  discusses  a  grand  series 
of  topics,  —  Religion  as  a  Matter  of  Fact,  —  TTie  Soul  a  fieality, 
—  God  the  Infinite  Reality  of  the  Universe ,  —  Jesus  Christ  a  great 
Historical  and  Spiritual  Reality,  — Immortality  an  Ever-present  Re- 
aiilyy  —  Revelation,  —  Inspiration,  —  Authority,  —  God^s  Relation 
to  the  Universe,  —  Miracles,  — Tfie  Resurrection  of  Christ  a  Fact,  — 
&n, — Tlie  Atonement,  —  The  New  Testament,  its  Historical  Cred- 
Unlity  and  Trustioorthiness, — Christianity  a  Self-verifying  Religion, 
— Faith,  —  Sacrifices,  — Jesus,  —  The  Father,  —  The  Holy  Spirit, 
— Repentance  and  Conversion, —  The  Grounds  of  Acceptance  with 
God,  All  these  subjects  are  treated  in  the  lights  and  temper  of 
the  best  modern  criticism  ;  we  do  not  know  the  other  book  which 
would  give  to  a  young  man  a  better  refutation  of  the  most  recent 
objections  of  popular  infidelity,  ^nd  be  more  likely  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  a  genuine  and  hearty  faith.  For  this  reason  it  is  a  book 
peculiarly  fitted  for  parish  libraries  and  Sunday  schools.  Its 
adoption  as  a  text-book  for  advanced  classes  might  retain  many 
young  men  who  now  leave  the  school  for  lack  of  the  instruction 
suited  to  meet  the  wants  of  their  minds.  There  is  another  use  for 
this  book  to  which  we  may  allude.  It  is  obvious  that  there  is  a 
very  unsettled  state  of  public  opinion  in  regard  to  the  Sunday  af- 
ternoon question,  and  that  the  current  is  likely  to  set  in  the  direc- 
tion of  requiring  but  one  formal  discourse  on  Sunday.  The  ques- 
tion what  shall  be  done  with  the  Sunday  afternoon  finds  an  answer 
suggested  by  all,  —  occupy  it  by  religious  exercises  of  a  less  for- 
mal and  stately  character.  Organize  adult  classes  for  the  study  of 
the  great  facts  of  religion,  or  the  exposition  of  our  sacred  books. 
Portions  of  some  able  and  earnest  book  may  be  carefully  read  by 
such  classes  during  the  week,  and  then  form  the  topic  of  general 
conversation ;  or  the  pastor  may  talk  to  fifty  or  a  hundred  persons 
who  have  read  assigned  portions  of  such  a  work.  The  religious 
instruction  given  in  this  manner  can  hardly  fail  of  being  better  un- 

24* 


282  NOTICES   OF  BOOKS. 

derstood  and  TGraembered,  than  that  furnished  by  a  second  formal 
discourse  ;  and  for  the  use  here  alluded  to,  Dr.  Beard's  book  de- 
servbs  consideration. 


Footsteps  on  the  Seas:   A  Poem,     By  A.  D.  T.  W.     Boston: 
Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.     1857. 

To  good  thought,  and  a  profoundly  religious  spirit,  the  writer 
of  this  pleasing  poem  adds  the  grace  of  easy  versification ;  and  both 
this  poem  and  many  fugitiye  pieces  that  have  adorned  Professor 
Huntington's  Magazine  givb  promise  of  ability  to  execute  some 
longer  and  more  permanent  work  to  which  her  genius  may  one  day 
be  applied. 

Life  Studies ;  or  How  to  Live.    Illustrated  in  the  Biographies  of 
Bunyan,  Terstecgen,  Montgomery,  Perthes,  and  Mrs.  Winslotp, 
By  Rev.  John  Baillie.    New  York :  Harper  and  Brothers. 
1857. 

TiiESE  lives  are  regarded  as  types  of  the  Good  Soldier, -^ik 
Christian  Laborer,  —  the  Christian  Man  of  Letters,  —  the  Ma 
of  Business,  —  the  Christian  Mother.  As  illustrations  of  these 
subjects  the  names  do  not  strike  us  as,  in  all  cases,  well  chosen ; 
but  the  biographies  are  sketched  in  a  lively  and  pleasing  manner, 
and  the  book  breathes  a  good  spirit  and  inculcates  valuable  lessons.* 


The  Atlantic  Monthly  has  been  sent  to  us  by  the  publishers, 
Messrs.  Phillips,  Sampson,  &  Co.     It  is  evident  from  the  style  of 
publication,  the  list  of  contributors,  and  the  tone  of  the  articles, 
that  the  work  is  designed  to  take  a  place  in  our  literature  like  that 
filled  abroad  by  Blackwood's  Magazine ;  that  is  to  say,  something 
between  the  daily  and  weekly  newspaper  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
ponderous  quarterly  on  the  other.     There  is  ample  room  for  a  work 
of  this  description ;  and  the  cordial  welcome  that  has  been  extended 
to  the  new-comer  is  suggestive  of  a  general  wish  for  its  success. 
The  December  number  is  an  improvement  upon  its  predecessor, 
full  of  promise  as  that  was ;  nor  can  we  doubt  that  the  craft  now 
fairly  launched  and  manned  will  have  a  prosperous  voyage. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  283 

*^i*  During  the  last  quarter  we  have  published  a  new  edition  of 
Mr.  Stone's  Rod  and  Staff,  making  the  third  edition  of  a  book 
which  has  been  greatly  admired  by  a  class  of  quiet  and  contempla- 
tiye  minds.  We  have  also  published  the  ninth  thousand  of  TTie 
Gospel  Narratives,  their  Origin,  Peculiarities,  and  Transmission. 
This  work  has  had  a  steady  sale  since  it  was  first  printed,  and  the 
issue  of  nine  thousand  copies  is  a  proof  that  it  has  met  a  want  that 
has  been  widely  felt.  We  have  also  carried  through  the  press  Mr.* 
Sears's  long-promised  work,  **  Athanasia:  or,  Foregleams  of  Im- 
mortality." As  it  is  published  contemporaneously  with  the  issue 
of  this  number,  we  have  not  been  able  to  give  a  review  of  it  here ; 
but  we  confidently  predict  that  it  will  attract  to  itself  more  atten- 
tion than  any  other  book  which  has  yet  appeared  from  his  fruitful 
and  graceful  pen.  For  the  table  of  contents,  see  the  last  page  of 
our  cover.  Mr.  Martineau's  Miscellanies  on  Sacerdotal  and  Spir- 
iiual  Christianity  are  in  process  of  publication,  and  will  be  ready 
for  issue  before  our  next  number.  The  Year-Book  of  the  Churches 
for  1858  has  been  printed  during  the  quarter,  and  has  been  distrib- 
uted as  usual.  From  this  list  of  our  publications  during  the  past 
three  months  it  will  be  inferred  that  the  hard  times,  and  general 
paralysis  of  business,  have  not  taken  from  us  all  demands  on  time 
and  labor. 


284  RECORD  OP  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE. 


RECORD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL   INTEL- 
LIGENCE. 

June  16,  1857.  —  We  omitted  through  oversight  lo  record  in 
our  last  number  the  Ordination  of  Mr.  William  T.  Crapster  as  aa 
Evangelist.  The  event  took  place  this  day  in  the  Chapel  of  the 
Cambridge  Divinity  School.  The  Sermon  was  preached  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Gannett,  of  Boston ;  the  Charge  was  given  by  the  Rev.  Presi- 
dent of  the  University ;  and  the  Right-hand  of  Fellowship  was 
offered  by  Rev.  Professor  Huntington.  Mr.  Crapster's  resid^ice 
at  present  is  Lisbon,  Howard  County,  Maryland. 

September  22,  1857.  — The  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Ordi- 
nation of  Rev.  Dr.  Willard,  as  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  Deerfield,  Mass.,  was  this  day  celebrated.  The 
occasion  presented  many  expressions  of  respect  and  afiection  for 
this  venerable  servant  of  God,  and  was  a  time  of  great  interest  in 
the  town. 


September  30,  1857.  —  The  North  Middlesex  Sunday-School 
Society  met  at  Westford.  This  body  includes  14  schools,  175 
teachers,  and  1,125  pupils.  There  are  6,000  volumes  kt  the  li- 
braries of  the  schools. 


October  4,  1857.  —  Rev.  Leonard  J.  Livermore  was  installed 
pastor  of  the  First  Parish  in  Lexington.  Sermon  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Stebbins  of  Woburn. 

October  4,  1857.  —  Rev.  R.  D.  Burr  preached  his  farewell 
sermon  in  Medfield,  preparatory  to  entering  upon  bis  duties  as 
pastor  of  the  new  Unitarian  Society  in  Marietta,  Ohio,  in  which 
place  he  commenced  his  labors  on  the  following  Sunday. 


October  13,  1857.  —  The  Sixteenth  Autumnal  Convention  be- 
gan its  session  this  day  in  Syracuse,  New  York.  The  first  ser- 
mon preached  before  the  Convention  appears  in  this  number  of 


BECOBD  OP  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE.    285 

the  Journal.  The  other  sermon  was  preached  by  Rev.  John 
Cordner  of  Montreal.  An  essay  was  read  by  Rev.  William 
R.  Alger  of  Boston.  The  occasion  drew  together  about  forty  of 
the  clergy,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  successful  of 
these  pleasant  gatherings. 

October  21,  1857.  —  The  Middlesex  Sunday-School  Society 
held  its  usual  autumnal  meeting  in  Charlestown.  The  address 
was  given  by  Rev.  L.  J.  Livermore  of  Lexington. 


October  28,  1857.  —  The  new  church  erected  for  the  use  of 
the  Unitarian  Society  recently  formed  in  Belmont  was  this  day 
dedicated  to  the  service  of  One  God  the  Father,  through  his  Son 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  the  pastor. 
Rev.  Amos  Smith. 


November  22,  1857.  —  A  new  Unitarian  Society  having  re- 
cently been  formed  at  the  South  End  in  the  city  of  Boston,  ser- 
vices were  for  the  first  time  held  this  day,  in  a  church  that 
aflfords  temporary  accommodation  in  Canton  Street.  Sermons 
were  preached  by  Rev.  Rufus  Ellis  and  Rev.  Dr.  Putnam. 
lATge  audiences  were  in  attendance,  and  rarely  is  a  new  Society 
gathered  under  more  flattering  auspices.  Its  pulpit  will  be  sup- 
plied during  the  winter  by  Rev.  George  H.  Ilepworth,  who  has 
lately  closed  his  ministry  at  Nantucket. 


•^^*  Forty-two  young  men  are  at  present  pursuing  theological 
studies  in  Cambridge  and  Meadville ;  namely,  seventeen  at  the 
former  place  and  twenty-five  at  the  latter. 


%*  We  have  recently  heard  of  four  clergymen,  who,  having 
had  their  education  and  training  in  other  denominations,  have 
lately  sought  an  entrance  into  the  Unitarian  ministry,  as  afford- 
ing a  position  more  in  accordance  with  their  convictions  of  truth 
and  hopes  of  usefulness. 


%•  Rev.   George  M.  Rice  has  lately  closed  a  ministry  iu 


286  BEGOBD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENEBAL  INTELLIGENCE. 

Lancaster,  N.  H.,  which  has  left  a  grateful  record  there  of  his 
conscientious  faithfuhiess  and  of  the  respect  in  which  he  is  held. 
Rev.  W.  D.  Ualey  has  recently  returned  from  a  five  months' 
tour  in  Europe,  much  improved  in  health,  and  ready  to  give  him- 
self to  the  service  of  the  churches.  Rev.  B.  Frost  has  heen  com- 
pelled by  continued  ill  health  to  resign  the  pastoral  care  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  Concord,  a  position  he  has  held 
with  signal  honor  and  success  for  the  last  twenty-one  years. 
With  his  family  he  has  sailed  for  the  Azores,  where  he  proposes 
to  pass  several  months.  The  affectionate  wishes  of  many  follow 
him  for  his  complete  restoration  to  health. 

*4^*  Repeated  evidences  have  occurred  of  late  that  men  of 
wealth,  in  the  final  disposition  of  their  property,  have  not  for- 
gotten the  religious  institutions  mider  which  they  have  been 
reared,  nor  the  pastors  by  whom  these  institutions  are  sustained. 
The  bequest  of  six  thousand  dollars  to  build  a  parsonage,  another 
of  five  thousand  dollars  for  the  poor  of  a  religions  society,  two 
others  of  several  thousand  dollars  to  honored  and  beloved  pastors, 
are  a  few  cases  out  of  many  in  point.  We  honor  the  feelings 
by  which  these  bequests  were  dictated  ;  and  do  not  doubt  that  the 
measures  of  the  Association,  in  behalf  of  missions,  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  a  pure  and  high-toned  Christian  literature,  when 
seen  to  be  wisely  and  perseveringly  pursued,  will  by  and  by  com- 
mend themselves  to  remembrance  and  aid. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


287 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


(( 


(( 


(( 


(( 


In    the  months  of  September,  October,  and  November   the 
following  sums  were  received :  — 

From  Ladies'  Sewing  Circle,  Kingston, 

Mass., $  10.00 

From  Society  in  Kingston,  for  Book  Fund,    23.33 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  Society  in  Concord,  N.  H.,   .        .      20.89 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  J.  Caldwell,  .'   6.00 

*«      "      by  Hiram  Norton,  .       11.21 

"       "      in  Portsmouth,  .         .         .     1.83 

From  H.  Wright,  for  Book  Fund,    .         .         5.00 

J.  Hinckley,  ....    4.00 

W.  G.  Wise,         ....        2.00 

John  B.  McAlvin,      ....    2.00 

Dr.  Thompson's  Society  in  Salem,  '      22.00 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  Society  in  East  Cambridge,  .        41.00 

Books  sold  in  North  Chelsea,      .        .         .42.16 

Quarterly  Journals,         .         .  .        4.00 

Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  September,     .         .  40.92 

"        "    in  East  Cambridge,       .         .       30.00 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Chicopee,  .         .10.00 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  Seth  Chandler,  .         3.00 

"        "       Alpheus  Crosby,  Esq.    .         .  40.00 

«        *'       Hon.  Nahum  Ward,   .  41.09 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  Society  in  Groton,  .         .         .       36.00 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

Books  sold  in  Providence,  R.  I.,       .         .        4.99 
Quarterly  Journals,      .         .  .         .     2.00 

Books  sold  in  Gloucester,  .        .        33.05 


September  5. 

C( 

5. 

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12. 

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14. 

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24. 

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25. 

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«*  28 

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30. 

October    1. 

(( 

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3. 

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288 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


October    0. 

7. 
(I  (t 

(I         it 

*»  8-12. 
"  1-2. 
**  11,  15. 
17. 


Qinrtorly  Journals  in  Dover,  N.  H., 


i( 


it 


it 

(C 

it 
It 

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19. 

21. 

(i 

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•'21,  23. 

23. 

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24. 

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26. 
*"29,30. 
**        31. 
November  3. 


ii 


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i( 

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tt 


4. 

7,9. 
9. 
10,  11. 
11. 

12. 

i( 


"  11-23. 
**  23. 
*»         30. 


$  13.00 
9.00   \i 

Books  sold  in  Quincy,  .         .         .         80.00    'i 

"      Fitchburg,  .        .  1WJ7    l 

Quarterly  Journals,        ....         11.00 
Books  sold  in  East  Cambridge,  in  addition,    85.79 

Quarterly  Journals, 3.00 

Books  sold  in  Salem,     ....  3.00 

Quarterly  Journal,    .....       1.00 

Books  sold  by  Natbaniel  Danning,  •  6.00 

*'    by  J.  Worden,  Jr.  .         .         .     61.54 

'*    at  Autumnal  Convention,       .         18.40 

From   Dr.   M.   Goodyear,  towards    Life- 

mcnibcrship, 10.00 

Quarterly  Journals,       ....  8.00 

From  a  friend  in  Union  Springs,  N.  Y.,     .      3.00 
'*     Society  in  Manchester,  N.  H.,     .         18.00 
Books  sold  in  East  Cambridge,  in  addition,      3.0l: 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.1 

From  ^lanchestcr,  N.  II.,  in  addition,     .  1.1 

Quarterly  Journals,  .....      S.O0j 

Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  October,    .         .        34.5lj 
From  W.  P.  Pierce,  to  make  himself  a  Life- 
member,      ......    30.00 

Quarterly  Journal,  ....  1.01 

Books  sold  in  Lawrence,   ....    94.11 

Quarterly  Journals,        ....  4.00 

From  Rev.  Geo.  G.  Channing,  for  preaching,  I 
Quarterly  Journals,    .....      9J0 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Uxbridge,      .         .        10 JO. 

9. 
37.1 
.      0. 
57. 


(( 


(I 


From  Society  in  Kennebunk,  Me., 
Quarterly  Journals, 
From  Society  in  Keene,  N.  H., 
Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  November, 


a  ifSm^M  JimomaBan,  it  tlmti^iifi  Streiii  <  — 
ifihn.A.  t*.  A.fonplM(t    ^Jd  Tub<  ■        ■   iiXQO,; 
g^B  "Worfes    8  Tob.     .... 

K**  Uerooin.    9  \tA* 

^f  Mn.  VTim.    A.  U.  A.  ISafllflfr, 
fnT  IL  Wan,  J^.    1  voL  . 
fa.Vran,Sr.    4T0t 

Ml  Eaitkx. 

■  Cnue. 

ISdlliBtt.      .... 
llQiwiicter,         .        .        ,        , 

E^iu.     St^Wloa  bj  IL  A.  iTiUa.      .      .20 
\  )^riiM.-i|iliw  conntiDCil.     3d  EiHtilin.  ].0<l 

ii  of  \waK^\i.     ,     .     ,     .  \m 

il  %ni  Ihe  SiAlF.     ^.1  VAniaa.    . 
I  (foctfiiw  af  I'rajvf.     By  J.  F.  Cliiiftj?k 
k  OIJMlioiK  iA  CuimrJiiU  Chflriliuiiiiy. 
ily  N.  Worccelur;     , 

"    n.A.Mil(fs.  SthTIiooiond.'" 

- ,  iiipuUijr.    New  EiHiird.     .      .7fi 

iT  GflW-    I'Vom  C.  A.  Baruil.       .        .        .      .20  ] 
r  &|  Huii><>.    tfib  luliliOR.        ...  JM 

Kg.     Sulprt  ValMOiF. .OO    { 

e  Tnui.-lui)U(i  mid  NnlfA    fl  nik.      .        •        S-OO 
;  on  Sin  ouil  Itoitnnptioin.     .        .        .        .      tSP 

a  tbc  l*rinilj .35  • 

dpllnv  oF  fioTTiiK.  &y  Dr.  UUiit.  M  Eiliu'gn.  .3U  < 
^bixi!  LUunu.  :;>!  Eiiainu.  .  .  .  .39  < 
I  Hfl>h  Rkriunnry.  Uj-  Dr.  R«inJ.  B  roK  8iW  j 
»  and  Ol(i<!i:4a  i>r  ReUj^Ui  KiMnlfld£«.  S  vol^  I.a0  i 
3  of  thp  Trinriy. LOO    ' 


i.     NEW     BOOS 

iiol   I'lbllilio)   fe]  tin   tmrltton   ImLuUB   AmfltUs 

Vif  T  of  Uu  lEVimoilU  UBBABT. 

A  T  n  A  X  A  S  T  A  ; 


■ 

TUB 

n| 

JABTERLY  JOURNAL 

1 

BIC/IN  UNITAIIIAN  ASSOCIATION. 

i 

AnULt  IBSB-                              V»il. 

''i 

OOSltBU. 

UoUtDj!*  oris*  L««jittlwQ» 
tell-.         .                       .    K« 

.       -       &)1 
.       .       .     SM 

1' 

.1 

BOSTON^ 

J 

untimux  mmAiuAN  /usocunoN, 

J  fl 

ai  pRmutuA  srVKT. 

«^ 

1959. 

s 

; 

O  1  F  I  C  K  B  S 


ICAM  UNITABIAN  ASSOCUf 


KXEcnn^'R  cosonTTEi:. 
Stv.'  Sahuiu.  K-  Iiorunoi't  X}.D->  JPresuieul- 
E=..  B.^.r,.  B.  lUu.  D.D,  1  „„.n.„u,^ 
nan.  OTKvnKM  l-ArtuiAnKii,       t 
Bdv.  He>nv  A.  MiL.K«t  D>B^  SecnUtrp, 
Calvih  W.  Cijvm,  Ebq^  a>i!atiir«-. 
Uoti-  Alusht  Pbakima. 
'itsT.  FaKDBRio  H.  Hedoc,  D.J>- 
**    Wn.Li&M  R.  Alnbil 

Kdwin  p.  WmrPLt,  Ee*i. 
Rbv.  Ubshv  W,  Bi:i.t.ow9,  D.D. 

"     Okoiiwii'W.  Hrssieb,  D.D. 

"     Cakmcau  pALniKT.  D-D. 

"     WiLtiiAJi  O.  Eliot,  D.D. 


-•  The  OfRce  of  the  Aaeotaation  U  at  21  Brom 
field  Street,  Boston.  Tlie  Secretary  will  osiiaJIj 
be  thiac  every  ilay  from  12  to  2  o'clock, 

Applio-ttliotiB  for  IVeachere  may  be  made  to  (In 
Uev.  Charles  Brig|pj,  at  tlw  name  place.  Tho  office 
of  lh«  Treasurer  is  likewise  in  the  Roouij^  of  ihi 
Aftitociation,  and  reminanoi^  of  raoney  inuy  1»  maiii 
to  him  Iborv.  SobscripticHiB  receivpu  for  Ihn  Qnar 
terly  Jonmal, — prico  only  on»  dollur  per  annum 
All  standard  Unitarian  book*  tor  sale.  For  prinrfl 
(MW  thint  page  ofoovu. 


THE 


QUARTERLY    JOURNAL. 


Vqk.V.  boston,  APRIL  1,  1858.  No.  3. 

A  WORD  TO  OUR  FRIENDS. 

Some  curiosity  may  be  felt  to  know  how  the  Association 
has  passed  through  those  disastrous  times  of  the  last  six 
months,  which,  as  they  have  broken  down  so  many  com- 
mercial houses,  have  also  crippled  benevolent  organizations, 
and  left  philanthropic  and  missionary  societies  in  debt. 

We  do  not  propose  to  go  into  any  details  on  this  point, 
belieyiog  it  to  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose  we  have  now  in 
yiew,  to  state,  in  general,  that  our  receipts  for  the  last  six 
monihs  have  been  about  three  thousand  dollars  less  than, 
judging  from  the  corresponding  six  months  in  former  years, 
we  had  reason  to  believe  they  would  be ;  that  is  to  say,  they 
baye  been  three  thousand  dollars  less  than  they  probably 
would  have  been  but  for  the  financial  panic. 

Ko  one  can  be  surprised  at  this.     When  men  see  fortunes 

wrecked  around  them,  and  know  not  but  t^t  at  any  day 

:Aey  too  may  meet  a  loss  of  all  their  goods,  it  cannot  be 

•expected  that  the  claims  of  charity  will  have  anything  like 

the  consideration  and  support  accorded  to  them  in  prosper- 

TOL.  V.  NO.  in.  25 


290  A   WORD    TO   CUE  FRIENDS. 

ous  times.  We  have  felt  so  much  sympathy  for  the  trials 
and  struggles  of  business  men,  that  we  have  preferred  to 
wait  till  a  better  day  comes  before  we  make  an  allusion  to 
the  interests  which  our  friends  have  hitherto  cheerfuUy  sus- 
tained. 

With  the  dawn  of  that  better  day  which  we  are  now  per- 
mitted to  welcome,  there  will  arise,  we  doubt  not,  in  many 
hearts  the  questions,  Is  it  not  time  to  renew  the  charities 
which  I  felt  obliged  temporarily  to  suspend  ?  Should  I  not 
now  give  a  fresh  support  to  objects  which  have  a  claim  upon 
my  regard,  —  and  do  this  as  an  expression  of  my  gratitude  to 
God,  both  for  being  borne  up  in  trials  in  which  others  have 
sunk,  and  for  the  pleasing  hope  of  more  successful  times 
which  now  rises  upon  the  business  prospects  of  the  world  ? 

During  the  next  two  months  of  April  and  May  we  hope 
we  may  receive,  firom  friends  in  the  city  and  in  the  country, 
from  the  rich  in  sums  evincing  a  large  generosity,  and  from 
the  poor  in  their  humbler  but  no  less  praiseworthy  contri- 
butions, such  assistance  as  may  enable  us  to  sustain  the 
interests  we  are  trying  to  uphold.  Never  can  the  gifts  of 
our  friends  afford  more  timely  and  grateful  aid.  We  trust 
there  are  those  who  will  not  wait  for  personal  solicitatioD, 
but  will  enclose  some  expression  of  their  good  wishes  di- 
rectly to  the  Treasurer.  To  our  District  Agents  we  may 
suggest,  that,  in  many  cases  cut  off  by  "  hard  times  "  from 
making  an  appeal  at  any  earlier  day,  perhaps  they  may  yet 
find  opportunity  to  address  many  societies  in  their  districts 
before  our  next  Annual  Meeting.  Will  not  our  ministers 
generally  do  something  for  our  relief,  and  may  they  not 
now  with  goo^^  reason  ask  for  contributions  for  missionary 
objects,  not  doubting  but  that  in  many  cases  their  people 
will  thank  them  for  the  opportunity  of  giving?  Commit- 
tees of  gentlemen,  and  "ladies'  sewing-circles,"  may  also 


A   WOBD   TO    OUB  FSIENDS.  291 

help  us,  by  instituting  measures  to  supply  every  family  in 
their  town  with  copies  of  the  books  we  are  publishing. 
Large  sales  of  these  would  do  good  in  every  parish,  and 
would  give  us  immediate  and  timely  assistance. 

In  regard  to  the  circulation  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  we 
have  one  word  to  add.  Several  parishes,  that  have  hitherto 
taken  up  an  annual  contribution,  have  neglected  to  do  this 
through  the  late  hard  times.  On  the  one  hand,  we  do  not 
wish  to  withhold  abruptly  the  supply  of  that  Journal  when 
there  is  an  int-ention  to  give  an  annual  contribution ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  expected  that  we  shall  continue 
to  send  it  to  societies  that  have  no  purpose  to  contribute. 
We  hope  our  friends  will  bear  this  in  mind,  so  that  when 
the  Association  suffers  the  loss  of  an  annual  contribution,  it 
may  in  no  case  suffer  the  further  loss  of  the  expense  of  cop- 
ies of  the  Journal  fruitlessly  printed  and  circulated. 

It  only  remains  to  be  said,  that,  in  view  of  the  business 
troubles  through  which  our  community  has  passed,  it  has 
been  the  care  of  the  Executive  Committee  to  manage  the 
affairs  of  the  Association  with  all  the  prudence  they  could 
bring  to  this  service,  and  they  have  confident  hope  that  at 
the  Annual  Meeting,  in  May  next,  they  may  report  that  the 
Association  has  gone  on  steadily  in  its  varied  departments 
of  action,  and  is  entirely  free  from  debt.  But  one  thing  is 
wanted  to  secure  this  gratifying  result,  —  that  our  friends 
now  remember  us  in  the  way  and  to  the  extent  we  have 
here  indicated.  We  feel  sure  that  they  would  deeply  regret 
to  hear  that  we  were  compelled  to  withhold  our  regular 
appropriations  to  our  missions  in  Kansas  and  India,  or  to 
take  a  retreating  step  in  our  book  operations. 


292  CHRISTIAN  SALTAtlOK. 

CHRISTIAN  SALVATION. 

On  taking  up  my  newspaper,  the  other  day,  I  found  an 
extract  from  a  sermon  lately  preached  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  of  London.     Here  it  is :  — 

'^  If  any  man  here  should  be  in  doubt  on  account  of  ignorance, 
let  me  as  plainly  as  1  can  state  the  Gospel.     I  believe  it  to  be 
wrapped  up  in  one  word,  —  Substitution,    1  have  always  consid- 
ered, with  Luther  and  Calvin,  that  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
Gospel  lies  in  that  word  Substitution,  Christ  standing  in  the  stead 
of  man.     If  I  understand  the  Gospel,  it  is  this :  —  I  deserve  to  be 
lost  and  ruined ;  the  only  reason  why  I  should  not  be  damned  is 
this,  that  Christ  was  punished  in  my  stead,  and  there  is  no  need 
to  execute  sentence  twice  for  sin.    Christ  took  the  cup  in  both  bis 
hands,  and 

*  At  one  tremendous  draught  of  love 
He  drank  damnation  dry.*  *' 

In  another  sermon,  by  the  same  preacher^  I  see  he  has 
represented  the  Devil  as  troubling  a  man  with  his  sios; 
whereupon  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spurgeon  tells  the  man  to  reply 
as  follows:  — 

"You  rascal,  you,  don't  come  troubling  me  !  Did  I  not  trans- 
fer your  business  to  Jesus  Christ,  bad  debts  and  all  ?  What  busi- 
ness have  you  to  bring  them  up  to  me  ?  I  laid  all  on  Christ.  Go 
and  tell  my  Master ;  don't  come  troubling  me !  " 

These  sentences  would  not  have  attracted  my  attention 
on  account  of  anything  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spurgeon  is  in 
himself.  But  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spurgeon  is  a  representative 
man.  In  the  heart  of  the  kingdom  where  the  Christianity 
of  the  nineteenth  century  is  supposed  to  culminate,  the  Re^* 
Mr.  Spurgeon  is  its  most  popular  expounder.  Twenty  thou- 
sand people  flock  to  hear  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spurgeon  preach. 
They  are  not  the  idle  rabble  of  a  great  metropolis ;  but 


CHBISTIAK   SALTATION.  298 

dukes  and  lords,  gentlemen  and  ladies  moving  in  polished 
circles,  hang  with  breathless  attention  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spur- 
geon's  words.  In  him  the  Cbristianitj  of  this  age  has  a 
plain  utterance;  he  puts  himself  forward  to  speak  out  with- 
out mincing  what  Luther  and  Calvin  taught  I  give  him 
credit  for  candor  at  least,  and  believe  he  has  stated  the  log- 
ical consequences  of  the  Calvinistic  theology ;  so  that  I  look 
upon  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spurgeon  as  the  tide-water  mark,  to 
show  what  point  the  flood  of  the  popular  Christianity  of  this 
age  has  reached. 

What  is  it?  I  turn  back  to  read  the  above  sentences 
again.  I  have  no  words  to  express  my  astonishment  Chris- 
tian salvation  secured  by  substitution^  and  all  our  business 
transferred  to  Christ,  had  debts  and  aU!  How  can  you 
bring  that  statement  into  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  In 
which  of  the  beatitudes  is  it  taught  ?  Does  not  every  beat! 
tude  teach  a  diametrically  opposite  doctrine  ?  Was  it  not 
Uiis  very  notion  of  imputed  righteousness  on  which  they 
relied  who  boasted  that  they  had  Abraham  for  their  father, 
and  unto  whom  Christ  said,  *' Except  your  righteousness 
exceed  that  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  can  in  no  wise 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  ?  In  short,  is  not  Chris- 
tian salvation  something  a  little  deeper  than  a  mechanical 
transfer  and  substitution,  something  more  interior  and  spir- 
itual than  all  our  imputations  and  adjustments  ?  ^  Thou  shalt 
call  his  name  Jesus,  because  he  shall  save  his  people  from 
their  sins."  Can  we  not  see  the  truth  here  ?  That  man 
has  experienced  Christian  salvation  who  is  saved  from  sin- 
ning. Christian  salvation  is  identical  with  a  pure  and  holy 
character.  Righteousness  that  is  right,  not  outwardly  alone, 
but  in  the  heart,  is  the  righteousness  of  God.  Christ's  sal- 
vation is  a  regenerated  soul ;  Spurgeon's  salvation  is  a  ticket 
of  transfer  and  substitution.    When  Napoleon's  body  await- 

25* 


294  UNITABIAN  ignorance'. 

ed  burial,  a  crucifix  was  placed  upon  it  as  it  was  laid  in 
state.  That  crucifix  just  as  much  proved  the  Christian 
character  of  the  Emperor,  as  a  creed  of  transfer  and  substi- 
tution proves  the  Christian  character  of  its  holder. 

Yet  this  outward  and  mechanical  idea,  that  we  can  be 
saved,  not  by  what  we  are,  but  by  what  we  are  imputed  to 
be,  by  another's  standing  in  our  stead,  and  ^^  drinking  dam- 
nation dry,"  this  is  the  doctrine  which  thousands  and  thou- 
sands rush  to  hear.  And  those  who  preach  that  the  true 
salvation  is  nothing  short  of  a  real  freedom  from  sin,  are  ac- 
cused of  holding  a  "  lax  "  system,  and  "  prophesying  smooth 
things"!  We  are  warned  against  the  pride  of  self-right- 
eousness ;  as  if  pride  was  not  more  likely  to  belong  to  an 
imputed  than  to  a  real  righteousness !  For  one,  when  I 
think  of  these  things,  and  remember  that  our  Christian  ed- 
ucation has  raised  the  mass  of  men  no  higher  than  these 
views  of  Spurgeon,  I  do  not  wonder  that  a  true  Christian- 
ity makes  but  slow  headway  in  the  world.  Who  shall  lift 
up  a  voice  of  power  against  these  low,  corrupt,  and  semi- 
barbarous  views  ?  We  talk  of  the  little  effect  Christianity 
has  yet  produced.  What  can  such  a  Christianity  as  this  be 
expected  to  do  ?  Christianity  has  not  yet  had  a  fair  chance. 
It  must  first  be  purged  of  these  awful  errors. 

0. 


UNITARIAN  IGNORANCE. 

Most  other  sins  and  follies  have  been  imputed  to  Unita- 
rians, nor  have  they  escaped  the  charge  of  ignorance.  ^ 
connection  with  the  truths  of  the  Scriptures,  for  instance, 
there  are  those  who  think  us  deplorably  ignorant,  wilfol^T 


T7N1TABIAK  I6N0BAKCE.  295 

strangers  to  what  the  Bible  contams,  not  caring  enough 
about  it  to  search  and  find.  And  even  where  we  do  search 
and  find,  we  are  thought  by  some  to  be  so  depraved  in  mind 
and  heart  as  to  reject  the  truth,  and  thus  remain  really 
ignorant  of  its  nature.  How  it  is  that  we  are  more  de- 
prayed  than  others,  if  all  are  ^  totally  depraved/'  we  are 
not  told ;  or  what  possible  motive  any  man  can  have  for 
pr^rring  error,  when  he  knows  it  will  not  alter  the  truth, 
nor  save  him  from  perdition. 

Aside  from  these  childish  allegations,  probably  confined 
to  those  who  are  themselves  both  ignorant  and  religiously 
conceited,  I  suppose  the  charge  of  ignorance  is  not  often 
brought  against  Unitarians.  As  a  class,  they  are  allowed  to 
be  better  informed  than  most  classes,  and  they  are  some-' 
times  accused  of  being  proud  of  their  knowledge,  or  their 
general  intelligence,  and  making  it  stand  for  religion,  if 
united  with  a  certain  portion  of  morality. 

We  are  not  concerned  now  to  set  forth  the  right  or  the 
wrong  of  these  impressions.  The  opinions  of  others,  in  this 
respect,  do  not  trouble  us.  It  is  a  small  thing  to  be  judged 
of  man's  judgment.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  judged  of  the 
Xiord,  and  even  of  our  own  consciences  in  the  light  of  truth. 
And  truth  constrains  us  to  say,  that  we  are  not,  in  our  judg- 
ment, very  intelligent,  but  rather  ignorant,  in  regard  to 
some  things  which  are  essential  to  our  character  as  Unita- 
rian Christians.  And  of  some  of  these  we  wish  to  speak, 
in  all  frankness  and  honesty. 

Unitarians  are  apt  to  be  ignorant,  first,  of  their  own  his- 
tory. Many  of  them  may  not  know  that  they  have  any 
history.  We  have  heard  our  own  people  speak  of  our  faith 
as  a  thing  of  yesterday,  just  as  the  opposers  speak  of  it. 
The  very  name  of  Unitarian,  the  existence  of  such  a  being 
as  a  Unitarian,  is  supposed  to  be  no  older  than  the  present 


296  UNITARIAN  IGNOBANGB. 

century,  at  least.     It  is  not  known,  or  is  forgotten,  that  our 
fundamental  doctrine,  that  from  which  our  name  is  derived, 
is  as  old  as  creation.     The  unity  of  God  is  of  course  from 
everlasting,  as  God  is.     It  belongs  necessarily  to  the  very 
idea  of  a  Supreme  Being ;  a  certain  monotheism  always 
appeared  even  among  polytheists.    There  is  no  plurality  of 
Grods  in  nature,  none  in  reason,  none  in  providence,  none  in 
the  teachings  of  Moses  or  of  Christ     It  is  all  Unitarian, 
distinctly  and  by  emphasis.     "  Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our 
Grod  is  one  Lord,"  exclaimed  the  first  divinely  commissioned 
teacher ;  and  the  Son  of  God  reiterated  the  same,  declaring 
it  *^  the  first  of  all  the  commandments."     Since  the  world 
began,  there  never  was  heard,  or  could  be  framed,  a  more 
positive,  unquestionable  enunciation  or  definition  of  Unita- 
rianism,  than  was  given  by  Him  who  spake  the  words  oi 
God,  and  was  addressing  God,  when  he  said :  ^  This  is  life 
eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee  the  only  true  Grod,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent."    Since  the  world  began, 
there  never  has  been,  and  never  could  be,  a  more  unequiv- 
ocal, unanswerable  avowal  of  Unitarian  doctrine,  in  oppo- 
sition to  any  Trinitarian  hypothesis,  than  in  the  church  of 
Corinth,  when  Paul  wrote  to  that  church  :  "  To  us  there  is 
but  one  God,  the  Father."     Was  nothing  known  of  Uni- 
tarians among  the  early  Christians  ?     We  have  heard  of  a 
controversy  about  the  Arians,  in  the  third  and  fourth  cen^ 
turies.     It  is  said  that  they  divided  the  Empire  then,  and 
came  very  near  being  declared  the  Orthodox  of  that  day, — 
indeed,  were  triumphant  a  little  later,  so  that  Unitarianisia 
became  the  established  religion,  upheld  by  the  first  Cbris^ 
tian  Emperor,  and  by  two  of  his  successors,  as  the  religion 
of  the  Roman  Empire.     That  it  was  afterward  outvoted 
and  overborne  by  numbers,  does  not  disprove  its  antiquity, 
but  establishes  it.     So  in  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation^ 


UKITABIAN  IGNOBANCE.  297 

as  every  one  not  wholly  ignorant  must  know,  Unitarians  ap- 
peared in  Poland,  Italy,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  France, 
and  at  a  later  period  bore  witness  to  the  importance  as  well 
as  sincerity  of  their  faith,  by  being  thought  worthy  to  die 
for  it,  in  the  countries  just  named,  and  even  in  England. 

That  Trinitarians  should  be  kept  in  ignorance  of  such 
facts,  or  be  careful  not  to  proclaim  them,  is  very  natural. 
But  that  Unitarians  should  not  know  them,  or  speak  when 
they  hear  the  contrary  asserted,  is  not  creditable  either  to 
their  intelligence,  or  to  the  power  of  their  convictions  and 
zeaL 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  a  singular  degree  of  igno- 
rance in  regard  to  the  testimony  of  Scripture,  and  its  true 
interpretation.  We  do  not  expect  Unitarians  will  ever  quote 
Scripture  as  glibly  as  do  many  others.  We  do  not  desire 
it ;  for  while  it  passes  for  knowledge,  it  pertains  chiefly  to 
the  letter,  and  does  injury  to  the  spirit  and  true  intent  of  the 
Bible.  How  this  should  be  met  and  answered,  we  do  wish 
onr  people  to  know.  They  do  not  know  it  as  they  should, 
or  not  so  many  as  should,  by  any  means.  They  are  often 
oonfimnded  and  silenced  by  those  who  throw  proof-texts  at 
them  with  such  positiveness  and  rapidity,  that  it  has  all  the 
force  of  a  sort  of  knock-down  argument  Our  opposing 
friends  understand  this.  They  are  not  ignorant  of  the  arts 
of  textual  warfare,  if  they  are  of  other  facts.  They  know 
that  many  of  our  people,  especially  the  young,  are  ignorant 
of  these  arts,  unprepared  to  meet  and  unable  to  baffle  them. 
Most  Orthodox  children  who  can  lisp,  can  prove  to  you  the 
whole  round  of  Evangelical  doctrines  in  ten  minutes,  out  of 
the  very  Bible  itself;  and  your  little  girl  or  great  boy  stands 
mum,  with  not  a  word  to  say  in  reply. 

Now  there  is  a  knowledge  of  Scripture  which  will  enable 
one,  not  only  to  bring  as  many  or  as  good  texts,  —  of  little 


298  UNITABIAN  IGNORANCE. 

use,  if  that  be  all,  —  but  to  show  the  real  meaniDg  of  texts, 
the  manner  in  which  one  throws  light  upon  another,  the 
fact  that  some  will  bear  more  than  one  interpretation  and 
others  will  not,  the  fact  that  translated  words  are  not  in- 
spired words,  and  that  the  teaching  of  Christ  is  both  plainer 
and  more  authoritative  than  any  other  teachmg.     It  is  often 
forgotten,  indeed  we  have  sometimes  suspected  it  was  not 
known  bj  all  readers,  Orthodox  or  Liberal,  that  the  Bible 
thej  read  is  a  human  version,  and  only  about  two  hundred 
and  fifly  years  old ;    that  earlier  English  versions  were 
made,  by  as  sound  scholars,  and  in  some  controversial  pas- 
sages differing  materially  from  the  common  version.    It  is 
not  known,  or  is  forgotten,  that  while  Unitarians  are  made 
to  bear  the   opprobrium   of  using  their  own  versions, — 
though  they  never  have  used  them  in  their  churches,  or  as 
a  body,  —  nearly  every  sect  has  published  an  altered  ver- 
sion within  the  present  century,  and  the  largest  denomina- 
tions and  establishments,  in  the  New  and  the  Old  World, 
are  calling  now  for  new  translations,  and  denying  the  au- 
thority of  the  letter  in  any  translation  ;  while  new  theories 
of  inspiration  are  broached,  new  and  freer  commentaries 
sent  forth,  by  the   most  orthodox,  proof-texts  once  relied 
upon  are  wholly  discarded  or  omitted  from  the  controvert) 
and  not  a  single  Trinitarian  text  remains  that  has  not  been 
yielded  by  one  or  more  Trinitarian  authorities.     These  are 
facts.     Do  Orthodox  pastors  know  them,  and  inform  tbeir 
people  of  them  ?     Do  Orthodox  teachers  know  them,  and 
tell  their  pupils  the  whole  truth  ?     Are  there  no  Unitarian 
pastors,  people,  Sunday  schools,  by  whom  the  facts,  in  their 
full  extent  and  importance,  with  the  just  inferences  to  be 
drawn  from  them,  are  very  imperfectly  understood  ? 

Of  course  there  are  many  among  our  people  to  whom 
these  remarks  do  not  apply,  —  many,  in  all  our  churcbeSj 


UNITARIAN  IGKORAKCB.  299 

who  might  well  consider  any  intimation  of  ignorance  as 
impertinent.  Nor  do  we  suppose  the  ignorance  to  be  great- 
er with  us  than  with  other  sects.  But  we  contend  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  so  great.  We  attach  importance  to  the  fact 
of  knowledge,  we  address  the  understanding  more  than  any 
odier  denomination,  and  we  magnify  the  duty  of  knowing 
what  we  believe,  and  why  we  believe  it.  We  are  bound, 
therefore,  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  points  of 
which  we  speak,  and  about  which  men  wrangle.  We  are 
bound  to  know  the  distinctive  features  of  the  system  we 
adopt  and  the  systems  we  reject ;  to  know  enough  of  Cal- 
Tinism  and  Bomanism  to  recognize  whatever  is  true  in 
tfaem,  as  well  as  all  that  is  false.  We  ought  to  obtain  for 
ourselves,  and  impart  to  our  children,  sufficient  knowledge 
of  ecclesiastical  history,  dogmatic  theology,  and  Scriptural 
interpretation,  to  be  prepared  for  any  assault  or  inquiry, 
and  able  to  expose  assumption  and  sophistry. 

I  say,  'Mmpart  to  our  children";  which  may  indicate 
another  province,  where  both  ignorance  and  neglect  of  duty 
may  be  found.  And  here  we  have  to  contend,  not  only  with 
a  matter  of  fact,  but  with  a  matter  of  principle.  For  it  may 
be  said  to  be  a  principle,  with  many  parents  and  teachers, 
especially  in  Sunday  schools,  to  keep  the  young  in  ignorance 
oi  theological  disputes,  and  all  that  goes  by  the  name  of 
"doctrine."  Everybody  knows  how  diligently  and  con- 
scientioasly  the  children  of  other  sects  are  drilled  and  forti- 
fied in  their  own  doctrines.  And  everybody  also  knows 
tiiat  there  is  very  little  of  this,  in  most  cases  nothing,  in 
our  own  schools  or  families.  Doctrines  are  purposely  avoid- 
ed. If  questions  are  asked  in  relation  to  those  in  dispute, 
usually  the  questions  are  either  evaded,  or  frowned  down, 
or  answered  as  quickly  and  lightly  as  possible.  No  infor- 
mation is  given,  or  doubt  removed,  lest  a  prepossession 


800  XTMITABUJr  IGNOEAKCn. 

should  be  created.  ^  Why  prejudioe  the  minds  of  the  joong 
and  innocent  ?  Let  them  grow  up  ignorant  of  the  whole, 
and  then  get  the  knowledge  as  they  can,  and  form  their  own 
opinions." 

Now  such  reasoning,  and  such  treatment  of  the  forming 
mind,  seem  to  us,  we  are  free  to  say,  utterly  preposterous 
and  criminally  wrong.  It  is  preposterous  to  imagine  that 
any  mind  can  be  kept  free  from  all  bias,  and  wrong  to  sup- 
pose that  it  should  be  kept  free  from  a  bias  in  frivor  of 
truth.  If  truth  is  better  than  error,  then  is  truth  to  be  in- 
culcated and  error  exposed.  Doctrines  are  truths,  facts, 
realities,  and  have  all  the  power  of  motives  and  principles 
of  action.  There  is  the  same  difference  between  truth  and 
falsehood  in  Scripture  or  religicm,  as  betweoi  truth  and 
falsehood  in  speech  or  life.  True,  men  are  not  always  gov- 
erned by  what  they  believe,  be  it  right  or  wrong ;  some  are 
good  in  spite  of  errors  and  absurdities  of  belief,  many  are 
bad  with  the  best  creed  and  the  most  n^nal  convictions. 
Does  it  follow  that  error  and  truth  are  one,  H^firiH^  and 
light  just  alike  ?  Has  Christianity  no  advantage  over  Pa- 
ganism ?  Why,  then,  was  it  given,  and  at  such  immense 
cost,  even  the  death  of  the  Son  of  Grod?  Why  has  the 
Christian  faith  wrought  for  the  mind,  heart,  home,  the  entire 
life  and  death  of  man,  that  which  no  other  religion  ever  has 
or  could  ? 

We  confess  ourselves  amazed  and  mortified,  sometimes 
disheartened  and  almost  in  despair,  at  seeing  the  virtual 
indifference  and  practical  infidelity  of  hundreds  of  our  peo- 
ple, in  regard  to  the  whole  matter  of  doctrinal  knowledge 
and  religious  instruction.  Very  little  instruction,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  term,  seems  to  be  given  to  our  children, 
at  home,  in  school,  or  church,  as  to  that  most  momentous  of 
all  subjects  and  all  interests,  —  religion.    Impressions  are 


UNITARIAN  IGNOBANOE.  301 

sought  to  be  made,  and  that  is  well.  Precepts  are  incul- 
cated, as  to  right  and  wrong,  virtue  and  vice ;  and  these  are 
doubtless  more  important  than  anj  mere  theories  or  meta- 
physical distinctions.  But  there  are  distinctions  of  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  precept,  that  are  all-important.  There  are 
fundamental  yerities,  of  which  no  man,  no  woman,  no  child 
capable  of  distinguishing  right  from  wrong,  should  remain 
ignorant.  Parents  should  be  able  to  teach  their  own  chil- 
dren, and  children  should  be  early  and  thoroughly  instructed 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  if  possible  in  the  elements  of  eccle- 
siastical history  and  doctrinal  truth.  Teachers  in  our  Sun- 
day schools  should  be  verily  **  teachers,"  and  not  merely 
mofral  talkers,  kind  friends,  or  the  hearers  of  a  catechism. 
In  these  days,  if  children  do  not  learn  something  about  re- 
ligion in  the  Sunday  school,  they  are  not  likely  to  learn  it 
anywhere.  Commonly,  little  if  any  instruction  is  given  at 
home,  very  little  from  the  pulpit,  and  none  at  all  in  the 
common  schools  of  the  week.  Parents  have  ceased  to  do 
much,  or  apparently  to  care  much,  about  the  knowledge  or 
ignorance  of  their  children  in  matters  of  doctrine,  and  all 
such  matters  must  be  excluded  from  the  free  schools  because 
of  the  jealousy  of  sects ;  and  if  our  teachers  on  Sunday  are 
to  avoid  doctrines  as  much  as  possible,  and  be  very  careful 
not  to  hint  their  own  convictions,  or  run  the  risk  of  injlu' 
endng  the  ductile  mind,  —  that  is,  putting  it  in  the  way  of 
truth  and  right, ' —  it  is  clear  that  the  young  must  grow  up 
in  ignorance  as  to  this  whole  vast  province,  having  no  in- 
telligent strong  convictions,  and  as  likely  to  become  Eoman- 
ists,  Calvinists,  or  infidels,  as  Christians  of  a  liberal  stamp 
and  sound  mind.  Question  any  one  who  has  gone  out  of 
the  Unitarian  faith  into  any  unlike  it,  and  it  will  probably 
be  found  that  there  was  very  little  "  faith  "  in  the  case ;  — 
little  instruction  had  been  offered,  little  truth  learned,  and 

TOL.  V.  NO.  HI.  26 


80S  BISHOP  HSADS'S  TntOHTIA. 

little  aoooant  can  be  given  either  of  the  system  left  or  tbe 
system  adopted. 

There  is  a  sad  want  amcmg  as  of  systematic  religions 
instruction.  Even  where  there  is  ability  to  instruct,  and  a 
desire  to  receive  instruction,  it  is  not  attempted  systemati- 
cally or  thoroughly.  No  order  is  observed  in  the  manuals 
used  and  books  studied,  no  connected  plans  are  formed  and 
adhered  to,  no  inquiry  is  made  by  parents,  or  concern  ex- 
pressed, but  everything  left  to  chance,  as  to  the  teacher  and 
the  thing  taught.  The  consequence  is,  that  when  you  pnt 
to  a  class  of  children  the  simplest  questions,  as  to  the  foun- 
dation of  religion,  the  being  of  God,  the  nature  of  revela- 
tion, the  history  of  the  Bible,  or  the  character  of  its  different 
writers  and  different  books,  —  indeed,  questions  as  to  the 
first  elements  of  moral  obligation, — you  will  be  very  for- 
tunate if  one  half  the  class,  or  one  quarter,  can  answer 
your  questions  readily  or  intelligently.  This  we  call  igno- 
rance. It  is  Unitarian  ignorance.  J£  there  were  less  of  it, 
there  would  be  more  Unitarians,  and  more  firm,  assured,  en- 
gaged, pious,  happy  believers.  What  the  duty  is,  and  where 
the  responsibility,  every  one  must  see. 

H. 


BISHOP  MEADE'S  VIRGINIA,* 

The  venerable  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Virginia  promised  to  furnish  two  articles  of  per- 
sonal reminiscences  to  the   Episcopal   Quarterly   Review. 


*  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families  of  Virginia.    By  Bishop 
Mbadb.    Philadelphia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.    1857.    2  vols. 


BISHOP  meade's  YIBGINIA.  303 

The  articles  grew  under  bis  hands  to  these  two  large  octavo 
volumes.  In  their  preparation  he  has  visited  mouldering 
graveyards,  copied  ancient  vestry  records,  turned  a  delight- 
ed ear  to  anecdotes  of  the  olden  times,  and  obtained  im- 
portant documents  "  from  the  archives  of  Parliament,  and  of 
Lambeth  and  Fulham  Palaces."  With  a  most  reverential 
and  affectionate  spirit  he  has  thus  walked  around  his  dioce- 
san Zion,  marked  well  her  bulwarks,  and  counted  the  towers 
thereof,  and  certified  the  result  in  these  volumes. 

And  pleasant  and  gossipy  books  they  are.  They  have 
given  us  satisfaction  in  a  leisure  hour  or  two,  and  a  few 
things  we  have  gathered  from  them  we  propose  to  report  to 
our  readers. 

The  first  English  settlers  of  Virginia  being  Churchmen, 
that  Commonwealth  had  from  its  infancy  the  blessings  of  a 
ministry  that  could  trace  a  true  apostolic  descent.  While 
our  fathers  in  Massachusetts  were  perpetually  in  trouble 
about  the  Baptists  and  Quakers,  about  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and 
the  witches,  about  a  covenant  of  grace  and  a  covenant  of 
works,  no  similar  strifes  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Southern 
settlement.  But  this  had  another  trial  of  its  own.  The 
old  English  race  of  "  fox-hunting  parsons  "  sent  out  an  off- 
shoot in  Virginia.  Not  that  large  numbers  of  ministers 
came  over  from  England.  Men  of  the  stamp  here  referred 
to  are  not  remarkable  for  the  self-denials  which  missionary 
labor  in  a  new  colony  requires.  Accordingly,  as  late  as 
1655,  when  there  were  fifty-five  Episcopal  parishes  in  Vir- 
ginia, there  were  only  ten  ministers  for  their  supply.  Nor 
was  the  increase  very  rapid.  At  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolution  there  were  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-four 
churches  and  chapels,  served  by  ninety-one  clergymen; 
while  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  owing  in  part  to  the 
attachment  of  the  clei^ymen  to  the  cause  of  the  King,  only 


304  BISHOP  HEU>B*8  nRQlNlA. 

twentj-eiglit  ministers  were  foand  laboring  ^in  the  less 
desolate  parishes  of  the  State.**  The  character  of  a  large 
part  of  these  early  ministers  is  described  with  most  com- 
mendable candor.  The  Bishop  says,  that  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  Church  ^^  was  ever  tolerably  good,  faithfol  his- 
tory forbids  •  us  to  believe."  ^  It  is  a  well-established  fact, 
that  some  who  were  discarded  from  the  English  Church  yet 
obtained  liyings  in  Virginia.**  '^  It  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that 
many  of  them  had  been  addicted  to  the  race-field,  the  card- 
table,  the  ball-room,  the  theatre,  —  nay,  more,  to  the  drunken 
revel.  One  of  them,  about  the  very  period  of  which  I  am 
speaking,  was,  and  had  been  for  years,  the  president  of  a 
jockey  club.  Another,  afler  abandoning  the  ministry,  fought 
a  duel  in  sight  of  the  very  church  in  which  he  had  per- 
formed the  solemn  offices  of  religion.  Another  preached 
(or  went  into  an  old  country  church,  professing  to  do  it) 
four  times  a  year  against  the  four  sins  of  atheism,  gambling, 
horse-racing,  and  swearing,  receiving  one  hundred  dollars 
—  a  legacy  of  some  pious  person  to  the  minister  of  the 
parish  —  for  so  doing,  while  he  practised  all  of  the  vices 
himself.  When  he  died,  in  the  midst  of  his  ravings  he  was 
heard  hallooing  the  hounds  to  the  chase."  (YoL  I.  pp. 
16-18.)  We  must  not  refer  to  such  cases  as  these  with- 
out presenting  the  apology  for  recording  them  in  the  Bish- 
op's own  words,  in  which  the  reader  wiU  observe  the  quiet 
hint  that  Grod  might  have  done  ^  better  " :  — 

'*  Gladly  woald  I  be  spared  the  painful  reference  to  them  and 
others,  could  it  be  done  withoot  unfaithfiulness  to  the  task  under- 
taken. In  consenting  to  engage  in  it,  which  I  have  done  with  re- 
luctance, it  became  my  doty  to  present  an  honest  exhibition  of  the 
subject,  and  not  misrepresent  by  a  suppression  of  the  truth.  God 
has  set  us  the  example  of  true  fidelity  in  the  biographical  and  his- 
torical notices  whidi  perrade  the  sacred  Scriptures.    The  greatest 


BISHOP  HSADE's  YIBaiNIA.  305 

failings  of  his  best  saints,  as  well  as  the  abominations  of  the  wick- 
ed, are  there  faithfully  recorded  as  warnings  to  all  ages ;  though 
there  are  those  who  think  it  had  been  better  to  have  passed  over 
some  unhappy  passages.  I  have  gone  as  far  as  conscience  and 
judgment  would  allow  in  the  way  of  omission  even  of  things 
which  have  passed  under  my  own  eyes." 

A  few  pages  following  the  extract  here  given,  we  find  a 
curious  picture  of  the  writer's  ordination  as  a  priest.  The 
event  took  place  Sunday,  February  24,  1811,  in  Williams- 
burg, the  seat  of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary.  After 
an  account  of  the  ^very  brief"  examination  made  bj 
Bishop  Madison,  we  read  as  follows :  — 

*«  On  oar  way  to  the  old  church,  the  Bishop  and  myself  met  a 
number  of  students  with  guns  on  their  shoulders  and  dogs  at  their 
sides,  attracted  by  the  frosty  morning,  which  was  favorable  to  the 
chase ;  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  citizens  was  filling  his 
ice-house.     On  arriving  at  the  church  we  found  it  in  a  wretched 
condition,  with  broken  windows  and  a  gloomy,  comfortless  aspect. 
The  congregation  which  assembled  consisted  of  two  ladies  and 
about  fifteen  gentlemen,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  relatives  or  ac- 
quaintances.   The  morning  service  being  over,  the  ordination  and 
communion  were  administered,  and  then  I  was  put  into  the  pulpit 
to  preach,  there  being  no  ordination  sermon.  The  religious  condition 
of  the  College  and  of  the  place  may  easily  and  justly  be  inferred  from 
the  above.    I  was  informed  that  not  long  before  this  two  questions 
were  discussed  in  a  literary  society  of  the  College :  —  First,  Wheth- 
er there  be  a  God?    Secondly,  Whether  the  Christian  religion  had 
been  injurious  or  beneficial  to  mankind?     Infidelity,  indeed,  was 
then  rife  in  the  State,  and  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  was 
regarded  as  the  hot-bed  of  French  politics  and  religion.    I  can 
truly  say  that  then,  and  for  some  years  after,  in  every  educated 
young  mau  of  Virginia  whom  I  met,  I  expected  to  find  a  sceptic,  if 
not  an  avowed  unbeliever.     I  left  Williamsburg,  as  may  well  be 
imagined,  with  sad  feelings  of  discouragement.    My  next  Sabbath 
was  spent  in  Richmond,  where  the  condition  of  things  was  a  little 

26* 


806  BISHOP  HKABfl^S  TIBGIKIA. 

better.    Although  there  was  a  diurch  in  the  older  part  of  the 
town,  it  was  never  used  bat  on  eommnnion-days.     The  place  of 
worship  was  an  apartment  in  the  Capitol,  which  held  a  few  hun- 
dred persons  at  most,  and  as  the  Presbyterians  had  no  dinrch  at 
all  in  Richmond  at  that  time,  the  nse  of  the  room  was  divided  be- 
tween them  and  the  Episcopalians,  each  haying  sendee  every  other 
Sabbath  morning,  and  no  oilener.    Even  two  years  after  this,  be- 
ing in  Richmond  on  a  communion  Sunday,  I  assisted  the  rector, 
Doctor  Buchanan,  in  the  old  church,  when  only  two  gentlemen 
and  a  few  ladies  communed.    One  of  these  gentlemen,  the  elder 
son  of  Judge  Marshall,  was  resident  in  the  upper  country.   One  of 
the  old  clergy  who  was  presmt  did  a]^nroach  to  the  chancel  with 
a  view  of  partaking ;  but  his  habits  were  so  bad  and  so  notorious, 
that  he  was  motioned  by  the  rector  not  to  come.   Indeed,  it  was  be- 
lieved that  he  was  not  in  a  sober  state  at  the  time." — yol.I.p.29. 

While  we  fail  to  see  eyidences  of  superior  advantages 
whicli  Episcopacy  secured  to  the  coIodj  of  Virginia,  bat 
which  were  denied  to  the  benighted  dissenters  of  Massachu- 
setts, there  is  another  subject  plainly  alluded  to  in  these 
pages  which  still  further  shows  the  misfortune  of  our  South* 
em  neighbors.  We  refer  to  slaverj.  Here,  also,  Bishop 
Meade  is  explicit  and  candid.  He  says  that  for  £%  years 
he  has  travelled  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  that 
State,  he  has  conversed  freely  with  farmers,  politicians, 
ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  other  Christians,  and  he  knows 
well  what  opinions  on  this  subject  are  held  by  the  great 
body  of  the  citizens.  That  opinion  is,  that  slavery  has  in- 
jured the  religious,  political,  and  agricultural  interests  of 
Virginia.  He  refers  to  her  deserted  fields,  impoverished 
estates,  and  emigrating  population  as  proofs,  and  to  the  fact 
that  ^^  sister  States,  with  far  less  advantages  of  soil,  dimate, 
and  navigation,  have  outstripped  us  in  numbers,  wealth,  and 
political  power."  "The  effect  of  slavery  upon  our  religious 
institutions  has  been  a  matter  of  remark  and  lamentation  by 


BISHOP  MEADE'S   T18GI»1A,  307 

some  of  the  earliest  writers  on  Virginia,  beginning  vitb  the 
first  century  of  her  eiiatence.  They  apeak  of  the  large 
estates  cultivated  by  slaves,  eapecially  along  the  rivers,  as 
preventing  the  establishment  of  villages,  churches,  and 
schools.  To  this  day  the  ministers  of  religion  deeply  feel 
this  in  the  distant  abodes  of  their  members.  That  slaveiy 
and  its  attendant — a  supposed  disgrace  belonging  to  labor 
—has  produced  in  many  of  the  sons  of  Yirginia  gentlemen 
idleness  and  dissipation,  who  will  deny  ?  " 

But  for  all  these  evils  the  Bishop  finds  one  grand  com- 
pensation. Against  slavery,  infidelity,  deserted  charcbes, 
and  drunken  parsons,  there  is  the  conspicuous  ofitot  that 
"  the  Unitarian  here^  "  has  never  prevailed  in  Yii^inia,  and 
that "  the  slaveholding  Stipes  are  now  most  happily  free  from 
this  and  other  pestilential  heresies."  (VoL  I.  p.  91.)  We 
oonfese  we  never  read  the  word  Vhitarian  with  more  sar- 
prise  in  our  life.  To  tell  the  truth,  we  hardly  once  sus- 
pected that  our  littlo  sect  had  even  been  heard  of  in  Vir- 
ginia. Ailer  the  many  reprosentations  in  various  quarters 
of  ita  quite  insignificant  influence,  thb  ascription  to  it  of  a 
gigantic  and  preponderating  power  of  evil,  strikes  ns  as 
altogether  ludicrous,  and  reminds  ns  of  the  remark  recently 
made  by  an  ancient  dame  in  the  almshouse,  who,  believing 
that  the  present  style  of  bonnets  is  a  clear  evasion  of  Scrip- 
ture, consoled  herself  for  the  loss  of  fortune,  home,  and 
Mendq  in  the  observation  that  she  was  "  saved  from  all 
temptation  to  the  Bible-defying  sin  of  going  into  public  meet- 
ings with  her  bead  uncovered."  Of  coarse  it  would  have 
been  unkind  in  us  to  take  away  this  crumb  of  comfort;  and 
acting  on  this  principle,  we  gladly  turn  from  this,  perhaps 
the  only  illiberal  reflection  in  these  volumes,  to  see  how  our 
aatboT  treats  other  topics. 

The  subject  of  education  presents  another  striking  point 


808  BISHOP  ksadb'b  yxbgxnul. 

of  contrast  between  Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  How 
early,  in  the  first-named  colonj,  those  stem  old  Puritans, 
who  knew  nothing  of  the  blessings  of  a  Church  established 
bj  law,  set  up  a  public  free  school  in  every  town,  ^  to  the 
end  that  learning  might  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of  their 
fathers,"  is  well  known  by  all,  and  need  not  here  be  recorded. 
But  their  Southern  neighbors  pursned  a  different  policy. 
On  the  question  who  were  the  first  settlers  of  Virginia 
Bishop  Meade  thus  writes:-^ 

**They  were  not  lords,  or  their  eldest  sons,  and  therefore 
heirs  of  lordship.  Neither  were  they  in  any  great  numbers  the 
ultra  devotees  of  kings,  —  the  rich,  gay,  military,  Cavalier  ad- 
herents of  Charles  I., —  or  the  non-juring  belierers  in  thedirine 
right  of  kings,  in  the  days  of  Charles  II.  and  James  II.  Some  of 
all  these  were  in  the  Colony,  doubtless.  Some  dainty  idlers,  with 
a  little  high  blood,  came  oyer  with  Captain  Smith  at  first,  and 
more  of  the  rich  and  high-minded  Cavaliers  after  the  execution  of 
Charles  I. ;  but  Virginia  did  not  suit  them  well  enough  to  attract 
and  retain  great  numbers.  There  was  too  much  hard  work  to  be 
done,  or  too  much  independence,  even  from  the  first,  for  those  who 
held  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and  passive  obedience  to  kings 
and  others  in  authority,  to  make  Virginia  a  comfortable  place  for 
them  and  their  posterity.  And  yet  we  must  not  suppose  that  the 
opposite  class  —  the  paupers,  the  ignorant;  the  servile — fermed 
the  basis  of  the  larger  and  better  class  of  the  Virginia  population, 
when  it  began  to  develop  its  character  at  the  Revolution,  and  in- 
deed long  before.  These  did  not  spring  up  into  great  men  in  a 
day  or  a  night,  on  touching  the  Virginia  soil.  Some  of  the  best 
families  of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  France  formed  at  an 
early  period  a  large  part  of  that  basis.  Noblemen  and  their  elder 
sons  did  not  come  over;  but  we  must  remember  how  many  of  the 
younger  sons  of  noblemen  were  educated  for  the  bar,  for  the  medi- 
cal profession,  and  the  pulpit,  and  turned  adrift  on  the  world  to 
seek  their  own  living,  without  any  patrimony.  Some  of  these, 
and  many  more  of  their  enterprising  descendants,  came  to  the  New 


BISHOP  MEADs's  vntami^  309 

World,  and  especially  to  Virginia,  in  search  of  fortane  and  honor, 
and  found  them.  Numbers  of  Virginia  families,  who  are  almost 
ashamed  or  afraid  in  this  republican  age  to  own  it,  have  their 
genealogical  trees,  or  traditionary  records,  by  which  they  can  trace 
their  line  to  some  of  the  most  ancient  families  in  England^  Scot- 
land, Ireland,  and  to  the  Huguenots  of  France."  —  Vol.  I.  p.  189. 

*    In  the  above  extract  the  phrase  "  some  dainty  idlers  "  is 
ambiguous.    It  may  mean  same  compared  with  all  the  origi- 
nal settlers  of  Virginia;  or  some  compared  with  all  who 
came  over  with  Captain  Smith.     It  is  only  when  understood 
in  the  former  sense  that  the  remark  can  be  defended.    After 
the  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  colonies  hecame  prosper- 
ous, Virginia  received  some  emigrants  of  the  same  sort  as 
those  who  came  over  with  VTinthrop  and  his  successors. 
The  truth  is,  the  geography  of  this  country,  always  a  puzzle 
in  !Bngland,  was  at  that  early  day  there  wholly  misconceived. 
The  whole  Atlantic  coast  was  called  Virginia.  The  distance 
between  Point  Comfort  and  Cape  Cod  was  not  understood. 
Those  embarking  in  England  felt  that  they  would  find  their 
friends  in  Virginia,  whether  they  sailed  for  the  former  place 
or  the  latter.  Perhaps  this  fact  explains  the  frequent  identity 
in  old  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  family  names ;  and  the 
widely  diffused  family  tradition  that  two  brothers  came  over, 
one  settling  in  Virginia  the  other  in  Massachusetts,  though 
so  often  ridiculed  by  genealogists,  is  not  in  all  cases  to  be 
discredited.     As  to  the  character  of  the  Jirst  settlers  under 
Captain  Smith,  it  is  impossible  to  soften  the  original  state- 
ments made  on  this  subject,  however  much  Virginia  patriot- 
ism may  wish  to  do  it.     Captain  Smith  himself  informs  us, 
that  of  the  one  hundred  and  five  on  the  list  of  emigrants  in 
the  first  ship,  there  were  but  twelve  laborers,  most  of  the 
rest  being  termed  "  gentlemen,"  who  had  never  done  a  day's 
work  in  their  lives..    Bancroft  calls  them  ^  vagabond  gen- 


810  BISHOP  MEADB'B  TntGIHIA. 

tlemen  ** ;  and  even  afler  seyen  ships  had  arriyed,  the  same 
hidtorian  sajs  that  the  emigrants  ^  were  dissolute  gaUants, 
packed  off  to  escape  worse  destinies  at  home,  broken  trades- 
men, gentlemen  impoverished  in  spirit  and  fortune,  rakes  aod 
libertiftes,  men  more  fitted  to  oormpt  than  to  found  a  com- 
monwealth.'' (Bancroa's  History,  YoL  L  p.  188.)  If  Bish- 
op Meade  has  the  first  settlers  only  in  view,  it  would  seem 
that  ^  some  dainty  idlers "  is  a  daintOy  chosen  phrase  to 
denote  the  main  body  of  the  emigrants.  That  some  other 
reason  than  the  one  offered  by  the  Bishop  may  account  for 
the  present  prudent  reserve  of  genealogical  trees,  it  may  be 
unoourteous  in  us  to  hint ;  and  therefore  we  withhold  the 
suggestion. 

Now  it  was  one  of  the  cherished  ideas  of  the  descendants 
of  those  ^*  gentlemen,"  that  education  was  to  be  had  <mly  in 
the  old  country.  It  was  an  aristocratic  distinction,  which 
belonged  of  right  only  to  those  who  could  go  abroad  to  se 
cure  it  Hence  they  sent  their  sons  to  the  schools  of  Eng- 
land, and  paid  the  expense  in  tobacco.  For  the  same  rea- 
son, they  discouraged  the  establishment  of  schools  at  home. 
On  this  point  we  again  use  the  words  of  our  author. 

"  Sir  William  Berkeley  [Grovemor  of  Virginia]  in  his  day  re- 
joiced that  there  was  not  [in  1671]  a  free  school  or  printing-press 
in  Virginia,  and  hoped  it  might  be  so  for  a  hundred  years  to  come; 
and  perhaps  it  was  not  much  otherwise  as  to  schools.     In  the  year 
1723,  the  Bishop  of  London  addressed  a  circular  to  the  clergy  of 
Virginia,  then  somewhat  over  forty  in  number,  making  Tarious 
inquiries  as  to  the  condition  of  things  in  the  parishes.     One  of  the 
questions  was,  ^Are  there  any  schools  in  your  parish?'    The 
answer,  with  two  or  three  exceptions  (and  those  in  favor  of  charity- 
schools]  was,  none.     Private  schools  at  rich  gentlemen *s  houses, 
kept,  perhaps,  by  an  unmarried  clergyman  or  candidate  for  orders, 
were  all- the  means  of  education  in  the  Colony,  and  to  such  the 
poor  had  no  access.    Another  question  was,  *  Is  there  any  parish 


BISHOP  MEADB's   VIRGINIA.  311 

library  ? '  The  answer  invariably  was,  none ;  except  in  one  case, 
where  the  minister  replied,  '  We  have  the  Book  of  Homilies,  the 
Whole  Duty  of  Man,  and  the  Singing  Psalms.'  Such  were  the 
answers  from  thirty  clergymen,  whose  responses  I  have  before 
me."  — Vol.  I.  p.  190. 

The  Bishop  goes  on  to  show  that  this  state  of  things  con- 
tinued down  even  to  the  Kevolution,  and  mentions  the  curi- 
ous fact  that  the  young  Lees,  and  Randolphs,  and  Meades, 
were  hurried  home  from  their  schools  in  England  to  pre- 
pare for  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  It  is  true  the  College 
of  William  and  Mary  did  something  towards  educating  a 
small  portion  of  the  youth  of  Virginia ;  but  the  Bishop  adds, 
^'  liCt  any  one  look  at  the  published  Catalogue  of  William  and 
Mary,  and  see  how  few  were  educated  there  frcmi  1720  to 
the  Revolution.*'  Governor  Berkeley's  wish  in  regard  to  a 
printing-press  has  been  fulfilled  to  an  extent  which  would 
doubtless  have  given  him  joy  had  He  foreseen  it.  Virginia 
publishes  newspapers  and  pamphlets,  but  who  meets  with  a 
Virginia-printed  book  ?  These  volumes  we  are  now  review- 
ing were  printed  in  Philadelphia.  How  would  a  Massachu- 
setts author  feel,  if  he  had  to  go  to  New  York  to  secure  a  fit 
publication  of  the  annals  of  his  State?  Mr.  Howison,  "the 
Virginia  historian,"  says:  "The  question  might  be  asked, 
Where  is  the  literature  of  Virginia  ?  and  it  could  not  be  easily 
answered.     It  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that  her  people  have 

never  been  a  reading  people It  is  with  pain  that  we 

are  compelled  to  speak  of  the  horrible  cloud  of  ignorance 
that  rests  on  Virginia."  And  he  goes  on  to  compute  that  in 
1848  there  were  in  that  State  166,000  white  children  be- 
tween seven  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  of  these  126,000 
attend  no  school  at  all,  and  receive  no  education  except  what 
can  be  imparted  by  ignorant  parents. 

We  have  dwelt  on  points  of  contrast  between  Virginia 


812  BISHOP  XBAPS'S  TmaiNiA. 

and  Mmssachosetts  longer  than  we  intended.    We  took  our 
pen  in  hand  chiefly  to  note  a  few  of  the  many  cnrioos  fiicts 
which  antiqoarian  zeal  has  collected.    Naturally,  attention 
is  first  called  to  the  parish  at  Jamestown,  where  the  first 
settlement  was  made.    It  is  stated  that  Sir  Walter  Baleigh 
gaye  one  hundred  poonds  for  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity here.      Here  was  an  officiating  and  apostolicallj 
descended  minister,  fourteen  years  before  the  Mayflower 
touched  the  Plymouth  shore.    Here,  also,  as  early  as  1611, 
the  Lord  General  Delaware  used  to  repair  every  Sondaj, 
as  an  old  chronicler  says,  ^  with  a  guard  of  halberdiers  in 
his  lordship's  livery,  his  lordship  having  his  seat  in  the  dioir 
in  a  great  velvet  chair,  with  a  cloth  and  a  velvet  eoshion 
spread  before  him  on  which  he  kneeleth," — thus  disf^ying 
a  love  of  episcopal  show  which  we  are  glad  to  see  oor  ex- 
cellent Bishop  condemns,  as  wholly  unsuited  to  the  dicom- 
stances  of  the  infant  setdement,  and  as  affbrding  but  a  poor 
augury  of  any  subsequent  religious  prosperi^.     It  is  be- 
lieved that  in  the  church  at  Jamestown  Pocahontas — th&t 
most  beautiful  creature  of  Indian  history — was  baptized 
and  married.    An  old  ruined  tower  about  thirty  feet  high, 
and  a  few  crumbling  gravestones,  are  xiow  all  that  is  left  to 
mark  the  spot  so  interesting  in  the  history  of  Virginia. 

The  parish  of  Northampton,  or  Accomae^  its  original  In- 
dian name,  is  remarkable  for  having  preserved  a  more  unin- 
terrupted record  of  its  early  history  than  any  other  parish 
in  the  State.  These  records  run  back  to  1632.  How  they 
must  have  made  the  antiquariian's  eyes  to  shine !  He  has 
given  us  some  quotations  illustrative  of  the  early  colonial 
laws.  The  penalty  for  slander,  if  the  oiSender  was  a  man, 
was  '^  to  have  the  tongue  run  through  with  an  awl,  and  to 
pass  through  a  guard  of  forty  men,  and  to  be  butted  bj 
every  one  of  them" ;  but  if  it  was  a  woman  who  had  used 


BISHOP   MEADE'S  VIEGINIA.  813 

her  tongue  too  freely,  "  the  huaband  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  five 
hundred- weight  of  tobacco,"  —  to  which  was  subaequeotly 
added  —  this  vicarious  puniBhment  probably  proviog  insof- 
ficient  —  the  penally  of  ducking.  The  case  of  one  old  tertnti- 
gant  is  held  up  historically  in  terrorem,  who  was  ducked 
three  times  from  a  vessel  lying  in  Ihe  river.  We  have  not 
space  to  name  other  illustridions  of  these  Blue  Laws,  which 
Ehovr  (hat  the  early  Solons  of  Connecticut  must  abare  their 
laurels  with  their  brethren  of  Vii^nia. 

In  following  the  Bishop  from  connty  to  county,  we  have 
been  struck  with  the  frequent  mention  of  old,  cnimbling 
churches.  We  had  no  idea  that  our  country  possessed  such 
venerable  ruins.  The  ecclesiastical  stmctures  erected  be- 
fore the  Revolution  were  built  oftentimes  of  enduring  ma- 
terials, and  by  thorough  English  workmen.  Amid  the  gen- 
eral decadence  of  religious  institutions  these  edifices  stand 
monuments  at  onee  of  the  more  earnest  spirit  and  better 
workmanship  of  former  times.  We  select  two  or  three  brief 
descriptions  of  the^e  dilapidated  churches,  merely  asking 
our  readers  to  imagine  what  a  strange  picture  one  of  these 
ruins  would  make  in  «  New  England  village.  Wycomico 
parish  church  in  Northumberland  was  built  in  1771,  and  the 
walla  are  still  firm.  The  following  description  represents  it 
as  seen  in  1837:  — 

"  Each  of  the  Bishops  of  Virginia  have  [has]  preached  in  this 
decaying  house,  though  tint  without  some  spprehenBion.  Ita 
present  cDndiiiun  is  truly  distressing.  The  doois  and  windows 
are  gone.  The  &ne  bricks  which  case  the  windows  and  doors  are 
gradually  disappearing.  Along  the  deaetted  aisles,  and  in  the 
pewH  uf  ihia  latgc  crucirorm  church,  meaauring  seventy-five  feet  in 
every  direciion,  miy  now  be  seen  the  carriage,  the  wagon,  llie 
plow,  the  lishing-seine,  barrels  of  tar  and  lime,  lumber,  and  vari- 
oas  implements  of  husbandry.     The  cattle  have  free  admission  to 

VOL.  T.  HO.  III.  27 


314  BISHOP  MEADB'S  VIRGINIA. 

it,  and  the  pavement  of  the  aisles,  and  even  the  marble  slab  which 
covers  the  remains  of  one  of  the  latest  of  its  ministers,  are  covered 
with  dirt  and  rubbish.  The  old  beU  which  once  summoned  the 
neighbors  to  the  house  of  God  is  lying  in  one  of  the  pews  near  the 
falling  pulpit.  In  the  deserted  chancel  you  look  in  vain  for  the 
communion-table  and  the  baptismal  font,  and  there  is  too  much 
reason  to  fear  that  these  are  also  used  for  purposes  far  other  than 
those  to  which  they  were  originally  consecrated  and  applied.  Some 
steps  have  recently  been  taken  towards  the  repair  of  this  large  and 
venerable  building,  but  whether  they  will  be  continued,  and  the 
work  consummated,  is  still  doubtful."  —  Vol.  II.  p.  133. 

No,  not  doubtful  now ;  because  the  Bishop  adds :  — 

**  At  the  end  of  twenty  years  it  pains  me  to  say  that  my  faintest 
hopes  have  been  more  than  disappointed,  and  my  worst  fears  more 
than  realized,  since  not  only  every  vestige  of  the  house  is  re- 
moved, and  its  site  enclosed  and  cultivated  with  an  adjoining  field, 
but  I  cannot  learn  that  there  is  a  single  family  or  even  individaal 
in  the  parish  still  connected  with  or  attached  to  the  church.  The 
whole  population  is  incorporated  with  other  denominations." 

St.  Paul's  Church,  King  George  CJounty,  was  erected  in 
1766,  and  was  "  one  of  the  best  cruciform  churches  in  Vir- 
ginia." Bishop  Meade  gives  the  following  account  of  his 
preaching  in  "  its  well-built  walls"  in  lol2  or  1813. 

'*  The  roof  was  ready  to  fall,  and  not  a  window,  door,  pew,  or 
timber  remained  below.  Nevertheless,  notice  was  given  that  we 
would  preach  there.  A  rude  temporary  pulpit  or  stand  was  rai 
at  one  angle  of  the  cross,  and  from  that  we  performed  service 
addressed  the  people.  On  the  night  before  the  meeting  a  heavy 
rain  had  fallen,  and  the  water  was  in  small  pools  here  and  there 
where  the  floor  once  was,  so  that  it  was  diflicult  to  find  a  dry  spot 
on  which  the  attendants  might  stand."  —  Vol.  II.  p.  188. 

Of  Pohick  Church,  Fairfax  County,  near  Mount  Vernon, 
the  church  to  which  Washington  regularly  repaired  for 
public  worship,  Bishop  Meade  writes  in  1837  :  — 


\ 


BISHOP       ade's  yibginia.  315 

^'  It  was  Btill  raining  when  I  approached  the  church,  and  found 
no  one  there.  The  wide-open  doors  invited  me  to  enter,  —  as 
they  do  invite,  day  and  night,  through  the  year,  not  only  the  pass- 
ing traveller,  but  every  beast  of  the  field  and  fowl  of  the  air. 
These  latter,  however,  seem  to  have  reverenced  the  house  of  God, 
since  few  marks  of  their  pollutions  are  to  be  seen  throughout  it. 
The  interior  of  the  house,  having  been  well  built,  is  still  good. 
The  chancel,  communion-table,  and  tables  of  the  law,  &c.  are  still 
there,  and  in  good  order.  The  roof  only  is  decaying  ;  and  at  the 
time  I  was  there,  the  rain  was  dropping  on  these  sacred  places, 
and  on  other  parts  of  the  house.  On  the  doors  of  the  pews,  in 
gilt  letters,  are  still  to  be  seen  the  names  of  the  principal  families 
which  once  occupied  them.  How  could  I,  while  for  at  least  an 
hour  traversing  those  long  aisles,  entering  the  sacred  chancel,  as- 
cending the  lofty  pulpit,  forbear  to  ask,  And  is  this  the  house  of 
God  which  was  built  by  the  Washingtons,  the  Masons,  the 
McCartys,  the  Grahams,  the  Lewises,  the  Fairfaxes?  — the  house 
in  which  they  used  to  worship  the  God  of  our  fathers,  according 
to  the  venerable  forms  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  some  of 
whose  names  are  now  to  be  seen  on  the  doors  of  those  now  deserted 
pews?  Is  this  also  destined  to  moulder  piecemeal  away,  or,  when 
some  signal  is  given,  to  become  the  prey  of  spoilers,  and  to  be 
carried  hither  and  thither,  and  applied  to  every  purpose  under 
heaven?"  — Vol.  11.  p.  228. 

It  appears  that  some  repairs  were  afterwards  made,  and 
that  occasional  services  are  now  performed  in  this  church, 
thongh  it  is  still  in  a  dilapidated  state.  A  more  flagrant  in- 
stance of  irreverence  and  neglect,  bordering  almost  on  hea- 
thenism, remains  to  be  alluded  to.  Pope's  Creek  Church 
is  in  Westmoreland  County.  Near  this  General  Washing- 
ton was  bom.  In  this  church  he  was  baptized.  Here  he 
received  his  early  impressions  of  religion.  What  would 
have  been  thought  of  that  church  had  it  stood  in  Massachu- 
setts ?  What  do  our  readers  suppose  was  the  fate  to  which 
the  chivalrous  Virginians  consigned  it  ?  Bishop  Meade  says 
he  preached  in  it  in  1812,  and  adds :  — 


316  BISHOP  MEADB's  YIB6INIA. 

**  It  was  the  first  service  which  bad  been  performed  in  it  for  a 
long  time,  and  from  that  period  it  continued  to  decay,  until  a  few 
years  ago  it  was  set  on  fire,  in  order  to  prevent  injury,  from  the 
falling  of  the  roof,  to  the  cattle  wJudi  were  accustomed  to  shelter 
M€rc."--Vol.  II.  p.  162. 

There  is  an  old  church  in  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  ven- 
erable relic  of  the  pious  men  who  there  worshipped  God 
five  or  six  generations  ago.  It  is  the  oldest  church  edifice 
in  our  State,  and,  excepting  one  named  by  Bishop  Meade, 
the  oldest  in  the  United  States.  Manj  of  our  readers  have 
seen  it.  They  will  remember  that  its  condition  is  somewhat 
unlike  that  of  the  churches  above  described.  But,  alas !  it 
is  in  the  hands  of  "  the  Unitarian  heresy,''  and  if  it  stood  in 
a  State  where  that  heresy  is  unknown,  it  might  have  had  a 
fate  like  that  of  Pohick  and  Pope's  Creek. 

As  touching  the  subject  of  this  "  heresy,"  we  have  in  one 
of  these  volumes  a  word  or  two  of  much  significance  in  con- 
nection with  one  of  Virginia's  greatest  names,  Chief  Justice 
Marshall.  Though  an  attendant  upon  the  services  of  the 
Episcopal  Church,  he  did  not  commune.  The  reason  is 
stated  in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  Eev.  Mr. 
Norwood,  which  Bishop  Meade  says  "may  be  entirely 
relied  on." 

**  I  often  visited  Mrs.  Genera]  Harvey  (Judge  Marshall's  daugh- 
ter) during  her  last  illness.  From  her  I  received  this  statement. 
She  was  much  with  her  father  during  the  last  months  of  his  lifej 
and  told  me  that  the  reason  why  he  never  communed  was,  that  be 
was  a  Unitarian  in  opinion,  though  he  never  joined  their  society. 
He  told  her  that  he  believed  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion, but  not  in  the  divinity  [deity?]  of  Christ;  therefore  he  could 
not  commune  in  the  Episcopal  Church."  —  Vol.  II.  p.  223. 

Mr.  Norwood  proceeds  to  add,  what  is  so  often  affirmed 
after  the  departure  of  distinguished  Unitarians,  that  a  con- 


BISHOP  MEADE'S  VIRGIKIA.  817 

version  to  **  the  orthodox  creed  '*  took  place  before  death, 
and  assigns  as  a  cause  a  perusal  by  Judge  Marshall  of 
Keith  on  the  Prophecies.  This  will  do  to  say  to  those 
who  are  not  acquainted  with  that  book.  Of  Judge  Mar- 
shall's conversion  to  Unitarian  views  we  a;*e  able  to  give  a 
brief  anecdote  which  we  heard  from  the  lips  of  Judge  Story. 
In  a  familiar  interview  one  winter  in  Washington,  Judge 
Story,  himself  a  decided  Unitarian,  asked  the  Chief  Justice 
if  he  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  reply 
wad,  he  supposed  it  was  a  well-established  doctrine  of  the 
C%inrch,  and  had  never  seen  reason  to  doubt  it.  *<  But  is 
the  doctrine  in  the  New  Testament  ?  "  asked  his  friend ;  ^  and  ^ 
will  you  examine  that  book,  as  a  legal  document,  and  let  me 
know  when  we  meet,  next  winter,  whether  you  find  it  there 
revealed  ?  "  Marshall  agreed  to  the  request,  and  on  meeting 
Story  a  twelvemonth  afterwards  said,  '^  I  had  expected  to 
find  the  doctrine  taught  in  the  New  Testament,  but  it  is  not 
there.**  A  mind  like  Marshall's,  that  had  examined  the 
great  question  patiently  and  independently  for  himself,  was 
not  very  likely  to  be  turned  about  by  anything  in  Keith 
on  the  Prophecies.  Chief  Justice  Marshall  was  a  Unita- 
rian. Bishop  Meade  is  right  in  saying  that  '^  the  Unitarian 
heresy  *'  has  never  prevailed  in  Virginia.  But  we  venture 
to  remind  the  Bishop,  that  the  value  of  witnesses  to  the 
truth  depends  upon  their  character,  and  not  upon  their  num- 
ber, and  the  testimony  of  one  clear-seeing  and  independent 
inquirer  may  be  worth  that  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
uninquiring  and  hereditary  conformists.' 

A  much  better  thing  still  Mr.  Norwood  records  in  a  post- 
script to  his  letter.  He  says  Mrs.  Harvey  stated  that  ^  her 
father  told  her  that  he  never  went  to  bed  without  concluding 
his  prayer  with  the  verse  his  mother  taught  him  when  a 
child,  beginning  with  <Now  I  lay  me   down  to  sleep.'" 

27* 


did  BISHOP   ICEADB's   YIBGIMIA. 

What  a  token  of  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  a  great  mind, 
what  a  proof  of  a  mother's  influence ! 

Our  allusion  to  the  subject  of  communing  with  the  Epis- 
copal Church  reminds  us  of  a  fact  in  the  life  of  General 
Washington,  stated  by  Bishop  Meade,  which  we  do  not 
remember  to  have  seen  before.  The  Bishop  discusses  the 
question, "  Was  Washington  a  communicant  of  the  Church  ?" 
No  positive  evidence  is  introduced  to  prove  that  he  was  an 
habitual  communicant,  —  a  point  which  it  certainly  would 
have  been  easy  to  prove  had  such  been  Washington's  habit. 
The  following  testimony  of  Bishop  White  will  go  far  to 
^establish  a  negative,  and  we  introduce  the  quotation  here, 
as  it  is  peculiarly  suggestive :  — 

**I  will  relate  what  Bishop  White  told  myself  and  others. 
Daring  the  session  or  sessions  of  Congress  held  in  Philadelphia, 
General  Washington  was,  with  his  family,  a  regular  attendant  at 
one  of  the  churches  under  the  care  of  Bishop  White  and  his  as- 
sistants. On  communion  days,  when  the  congregation  was  dis- 
missed (except  the  portion  which  communed),  the  Genera]  leA  the 
church,  until  a  certain  Sabbath  on  which  Dr.  Abercrombie  in  his 
sermon  spoke  of  the  impropriety  of  turning  our  backs  on  the 
Lord's  table,  —  that  is,  neglecting  to  commune,  —  from  which 
time  General  Washington  came  no  more  on  communion  days. 
Bishop  White  supposes  that  the  General  understood  the  words 
^  turning  our  backs  on  the  Lord's  table '  in  a  somewhat  different 
sense  than  was  designed  by  the  preacher ;  that  he  supposed  it  was 
intended  to  censure  those  who  left  the  church  at  the  time  of  its 
administration,  and,  in  order  not  to  seem  disrespectful  to  that  ordi- 
nance, thought  it  bette^rnot  to  be  present  at  all  on  such  occasions." 
—  Vol  II.  p.  254. 

We  have  ourselves  heard  the  words  above  quoted  from 
clergymen  who  were  pained  to  see  hearers,  for  whose  high 
Christian  character  they  felt  profound  respect,  retire  from 
participation  in  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  the  above  fact  in 


BISHOP  heabb's  ytrguoa.  319 

the  life  of  the  revered  Washington  has  renewed  our  conTic- 
tion  that  there  must  be  something  wrong  in  the  ecclesiastical 
arrangements  which  subject  non-communicants,  of  sincere 
conyictions  and  delicate  sensibilities,  to  such  a  conflict  and 
trial. 

Hardly  can  we  even  glance  at  other  interesting  facts 
which  find  appropriate  place  in  these  volumes,  for  we  have 
not  space  to  follow  the  Bishop  as  he  describes  his  visit  to 
Massachusetts  in  1819,  when  he  witnessed  the  laying  of  the 
oomernstone  of  St.  Paul's  Church  in  Boston,  and  ^  Dr.  Gar- 
diner delivered  a  severe  lecture  on  Unitarianism,  standing 
cm  the  comer-stone  of  the  new  church  along  one  of  the 
streets  of  Boston,"  and  '^  Mr.  Pickering  of  Salem  (my  fa- 
ther's old  friend  and  comrade  in  the  Revolution)  cleaned 
my  boots  at  daylight  in  the  morning,  and  at  a  later  period 
Bishop  Griswold  in  Boston  did  the  same."  For  the  same 
reason  we  must  pass  by  what  he  says  of  General  Charles 
Lee,  of  Revolutionary  memory,  who  in  his  will  pointed  a 
sarcasm,  worthy  of  Dean  Swifl,  against  the  religionists  of 
his  day,  to  whom  he  bore  no  friendship,  by  saying,  ^  I  desire 
most  earnestly  that  I  may  not  be  buried  in  any  church  or 
churchyard,  or  within  a  mile  of  any  Presbyterian  or  Ana- 
baptist meeting-house ;  for  since  I  have  resided  in  this  coun- 
try I  have  kept  so  much  bad  company  when  living,  that  I 
do  not  choose  to  continue  it  when  dead."  We  doubt  if  a 
more  sudden  transition  from  the  clerical  to  the  military  pro- 
fession was  ever  made  than  in  the  case  of  Muhlenburg,  an 
ardent  and  eccentric  clergyman,  who  was  well  known  to 
Washington  and  Patrick  Henry,  and  who  had  picked  up 
some  knowledge  of  military  affairs.  While  yet  officiating 
as  a  shepherd  of  a  fiock,  he  was,  in  1775,  appointed  colonel 
of  a  regiment    Bishop  Meade  adds :  — 

'*  His  last  sennon  concluded  with  the  words,  that  there  was  '  a 


320  BISHOP  headb'8  vxRannuL. 

time  for  all  things ;  a  time  to  fight,  and  that  time  had  now  come.' 
The  sermon  finished,  he  pronounced  the  benediction.  A  breathless 
silence  brooded  over  the  congregation.  Deliberately  pulling  oflf 
the  gown  which  had  thus  far  covered  his  martial  figure,  he  stood 
before  them  a  girded  warrior,  and,  descending  from  the  pulpit, 
ordered  the  drums  at  the  church'door  to  beat  for  recruits." 

In  his  ^'  conduding  remarks "  our  author  has  some  re- 
flectioDS  upon  the  natural  disposition  seen  in  Christians  of 
all  names  to  predict  the  speedy  triumph  each  of  his  own 
particular  sect  The  point  is  so  pleasantly  brought  out,  and 
the  Bishop's  observations  are  so  just  and  generous,  that  we 
cannot  forbear  to  quote  the  following  paragraph :  — 

' '  Very  soon  after  my  entrance  on  the  ministry,  I  read  a  sermon 
by  one  of  our  most  distinguished  bishops  on  those  words  of  the 
Psalmist,  *  Walk  about  Zion :  mark  well  her  bulwarks  ;  consider 
her  palaces,'  &c.  They  were  applied  to  our  Church  in  this  coun- 
try, and  her  praises  highly  spoken.  It  was  confidently  afiirmed 
that  she  must  greatly  prevail  over  others  by  reason  of  her  divine 
organization  and  many  excellences.  The  same  glorious  things 
were  continually  spoken  of  her  by  such  as  claimed  to  be  her  true 
sons  ;  and  those  who  did  not  firmly  believe  that  she  must  outstrip, 
or  perhaps  overwhelm,  all  others,  were  considered  as  wanting 
faith  in  the  promises  of  God  to  his  Church,  and  a  hearty  zeal 
in  her  behalf.  Just  at  this  time  I  met  with  a  sermon  on  the  same 
text,  and  in  the  very  same  style,  by  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
respectable  Baptist  ministers  in  Virginia,  showing  that  the  Bap- 
tist Church  was  so  clearly  the  true  Apostolic  Church,  —  of  course 
after  God's  own  heart,  —  that  it  must  carry  everything  before  it ; 
that  the  signs  of  the  time  could  not  be  mistaken.  Shortly  after 
this  I  went  to  the  West,  and  heard  of  an  eminent  Presbyterian 
minister  who  was  preaching  from  place  to  place  a  sermon,  or  a 
series  of  sermons,  if  not  from  the  same  text,  yet  on  the  same 
subject,  in  which  he  declared  his  firm  conviction  that  his  Church 
was,  as  to  her  constitution,  doctrine,  and  discipline,  so  Scriptu- 
ral, and  so  suited  to  the  genius  of  our  government,  that  in  twenty 


BISHOP  meape's  tibginia.  321 

yean  the  whole  land  would  embrace  it.  At  this  time  also  a 
favorite  song  with  many  Methodists  was : 

*•  The  Methodists  are  gaining  gronnd  ; 
The  Devil's  kingdom  's  tumbling  down; 
Hallelujah  !  Hallelujah  ! ' 

Doubtless  all  these  were  most  sincere  in  their  belief  that  what 
they  earnestly  desired  would  surely  come  to  pass.  Forty  years 
have  since  elapsed,  and  no  one  of  them  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  other.  On  the  contrary,  all  of  them  have,  by  God's  bless- 
ing, done  much  good  on  the  different  theatres  assigned  them, 
are  still  doing  good,  and  will  do  more  good.  Moreover,  they 
have  sustained  Tery  much  the  same  relation  to  each  other  as  to 
numbers  and  success.  All  of  them  have  had  their  trials,  their 
declensions,  their  reverses,  which  should  make  them  humble, 
and  cause  them  to  refrain  from  taunts  and  reproaches,  rather  re- 
membering the  admonition,  that 

'Brethren  In  calamity  should  love.' 

I  belieTe  that  there  are  very  few  now  to  be  found  who  would 
ventiure  the  prophecy,  that  their  own  denomination  must  soon 
swallow  up  all  others."  —  Vol.  II.  p.  388. 

What  a  sound  wisdom  and  broad  spirit  does  the  following 
sentence  imply :  — 

^*  The  great  want  of  our  Church  is  more  pious  and  zealous 
ministers,  who  understand  and  preach  the  Gospel.  Let  them  be 
sons  of  the  Church,  —  not  converts  except  they  be  young,  — 
not  proselytes  from  other  ministries.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  ex- 
pect many  useful  and  acceptable  ones  from  the  pulpits  of  other 
denominations.  All  experience  is  against  it.  If  respectable,  in- 
floeotial,  and  happy  in  the  places  of  their  birth,  training,  and 
ministry,  it  will  not  often  happen  that  either  conscience,  choice, 
or  judgment  will  induce  them  to  leave  their  old  associations. 
Most  honorable  exceptions  there  are.  I  have  known  such, — 
have  laid  my  hands  on  such,  and  highly  esteem  them.  But  at 
the  same  time  I  have  ever  made  it  my  boast,  that  if  in  anything 


822  BISHOP  1IEAD£*S  TIBGIHIA. 

I  haye  done  grood  service  to  the  Church,  it  has  heen  in  dissuad- 
ing from  oar  ministry  those  who  would  have  gladly  entered  it, 
but  who,  like  too  many  others,  might  have  done  us  evil  rather 
than  good, — might  either  have  been  drones  in  our  hive,  or  else 
have  taken  our  ministry  on  the  way  to  Rome.  When  I  have 
heard  it  boasted,  that  hundreds  have  left  other  ministries,  drawn 
by  the  superior  and  exclusive  claims  of  ours,  and  have  known 
who  and  what  too  many  of  these  were,  I  have  mourned  crer 
the  fact  instead  of  rejoicing  at  it,  and  regarded  it  as  the  judg- 
ment of  Heaven  upon  us  for  urging  to  an  extreme  which  neither 
Scripture,  nor  our  Protestant  fathers,  nor  our  standards  justify, 
the  exclusive  claims  of  the  Episcopal  ordination.  At  the  same 
time,  when  I  have  heard  some  of  other  denominations  declare 
that  none  but  the  unworthy  ever  leave  them,  I  could  not  forbear 
the  hint  that  there  must  be  something  most  defective  in  the 
training  of  their  ministers,  when  they  have  so  many  unworthy 
ones  to  spare."  —  Vol.  11.  p.  390. 

But  we  must  bring  our  article  to  a  close.  We  take  leave 
of  Bishop  Meade  with  many  thanks  for  the  pleasure  his 
researches  Lave  given  us.  If  we  have  dwelt  in  the  early 
part  of  our  remarks  at  too  much  length  upon  infelicitous 
circumstances  in  the  early  history  of  the  State  he  so  much 
and  so  justly  loves,  it  is  through  no  want  of  respect  on  our 
part  for  the  "  Ancient  Dominion,"  —  parent  of  great  men, 
—  and  in  no  doubt  that  in  later  years  true  religion  has 
revived  in  her  churches.  More  beautiful  types  of  Christian 
virtue  and  domestic  piety  than  are  there  furnished  it  might  not 
be  easy  to  find.  Throughout  these  pages  we  see  frequent 
mention  of  honored  names  that  have  long  beep  familiar  to 
us,  and  to  the  descendants  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madi- 
son, Harrison,  of  the  Randolphs,  the  Lees,  the  Pendletons, 
the  Herveys,  the  Tazewells,  the  Taliaferos,  must  the  author 
of  these  volumes  have  rendered  an  invaluable  service. 


8WITZEBLA1YD.  323 


SWITZERLAND. 

BT  BEV.   WILLIAM  MOUNTFORD. 

Switzerland,  Lausanne,  and  Lake  Leman,  —  what  asso- 
ciations are  connected  with  these  words !  And  sorely  it  is 
wortiij  of  the  best  of  them, -^  this  scene  on  which  I  look  from 
mj  window  at  Lausanne.  Down  towards  the  lake  slopes  the 
land,  —  orchard,  meadow,  and  vineyard.  Across  the  lake, 
«nd  rising  up  from  the  very  bank,  in  Savoy,  are  the  rocks 
of  the  Dent  d'Odie,  on  the  tops  of  which  snow  still  lies, 
and  indeed  has  quite  recently  been  falling.  But  the  lake, 
the  lake !  How  shall  I  describe  it?  And  altogether  differ- 
ent as  it  is,  one  day  from  another,  and  changing  in  appear- 
ance from  hour  to  hour,  and  often  from  minute  to  minute, 
bow  can  it  be  described  ?  There  are  in  it,  as  in  a  mirror, 
the  changing  aspects  of  all  surrounding  nature.  And  there 
k  in  it  all  the  va^ness  of  the  heavens  above ;  for  it  reflects 
it  all,— -^e  Mue  vault,  the  moving  clouds,  and  the  dazzling 
Ught, 

The  change  of  a  minute,  at  this  moment,  on  the  lake,  in- 
stead of  a  broad  surface  sparkling  all  over  it  like  silver, 
there  are  now  portions  some  of  which  are  black,  and  some 
pink,  and  some  of  the  brightest,  deepest  blue.  And  from 
Geneva  there  is  a  storm  coming  up,  dark,  misty,  and  which 
already  in  the  distance  is  roughening  the  waters  with  wind 
and  rain.  But  at  the  other  end  of  the  lake,  above  Yille- 
neuve,  and  in  broad,  bright  sunshine,  how  beautiful  the 
mountains  are,  one  behind  another,  and  one  above  another, 
their  dusky  sides  streaked  and  flecked  with  flag-trailing 
clouds,  and  their  tops  glistening  with  snow  ! 

A  scene  of  black  storms  often,  and  often  of  the  sweetest 


824  SWITZERLAND. 

calm,  —  a  place  of  fastnesses  and  of  high  rocks,  and  also  of 
homes  of  the  most  peaceful  look,  —  a  coantiy,  from  the 
heights  of  which  winter  scarcely  ever  quite  withdraws,  and 
yet  in  the  valleys  of  which  summer  is  so  sweet  with  birds 
and  flowers,  —  well  may  it  have  been  a  region  where  oflen 
human  nature  has  achieved  its  best ;  freedom  early  fortify- 
ing it  for  her  home,  heroism  consecrating  it  again  and  again 
with  precious  blood,  fancy  peopling  it  with  creatures  more 
enduring  than   those  of  fleshly  life,  poetry  deriving  from 
it  inspiration  high  as  the  mountains  here  and  pure  as  the 
winds,  history  feeling  itself  in  the  calm  here  able  to  re- 
hearse its  longest  tale,  and  theology  and  science  speaking 
hence  with  voices  for  the  whole  world,  on  the  laws  of  this 
twofold  universe  which  we  belong  to,  spiritual  and  material. 

Tes,  and  what  wonder,  too,  if  other  than  good  influences 
also  have  had  their  beginning  in  this  region,  because,  even 
amidst  the  sweet  sounds  of  Eden,  man  could  turn  to  the 
voice  of  the  tempter  and  listen ;  and  because  wherever  there 
is  freedom  there  is  liability  to  licentiousness ;  and  because 
always  there  must  be  more  or  less  of  error  in  the  thoughts 
of  mortals  speculating  on  things  immortal;  and  because 
wherever  error  is,  there  also  is  the  beginning  of  trouble 
and  sin. 

While  I  have  been  writing,  how  the  lake  has  changed 
again !  So  blue  it  looks,  and  so  still  and  level,  amidst  the 
hilly,  rocky,  mountainous  banks  I 

<*  Lake  Leman  woes  me  with  its  crystal  face, 
The  mirror  where  the  stars  and  mountains  view 
The  stillness  of  their  aspect  in  each  trace 
Its  clear  depth  yields  of  their  far  height  and  hue." 

Many  of  Byron's  best  verses  are  connected  with  this  region.  -^ 
Down  the  hill,  just  in  front  of  my  window,  and  on  the  bank  I 
of  the  lake,  is  the  house  in  which  he  wrote  his  poem  on  the  t 
Prisoner  of  Chillon.  f  s 


8WITZEBLAKD.  825 

This  **  own  hired  house "  of  mine,  behind  the  chnrch  of 
St.  Francois,  stands  in  the  garden  where  once  was  the  house 
in  which  Gibbon  lived,  where  he  wrote  his  autobiography, 
and  where  also  he  composed  the  last  volumes  of  the  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  And  it  is  seventy  years 
ago,  this  very  day,  since  on  this  very  spot  he  completed  his 
great  work.  In  his  Memoirs  is  a  pase%e  in  which  the  his- 
torian speaks  of  his  feelings  on  completing  what  first  had 
occurred  to  his  mind  as  a  thought,  at  Rome,  one  evening  as 
he  sat  musing  amidst  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol,  while  the  bare- 
fiwted  friars  were  singing  vespers  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter. 

"  I  have  presumed  to  mark  the  moment  of  conception ;  I  shall 
now  commemorate  the  hour  of  my  final  deliverance.  It  was  on  the 
day,  or  rather  night,  of  the  27th  of  Jane,  1787,  between  the  hours 
of  eleven  and  twelve,  that  I  wrote  the  last  lines  of  the  last  page, 
in  a  Bammer-house  in  my  garden.  After  laying  down  my  pen,  I 
took  several  turns  in  a  berceau,  er  covered  walk  of  acacias,  which 
commands  a  prospect  of  the  country,  the  lake,  and  the  mountains. 
The  air  was  temperate,  the  sky  was  serene,  the  silver  orb  of  the 
moon  was  reflected  from  the  waters,  and  all  nature  was  silent.  I 
will  not  dissemble  the  first  emotions  of  joy  on  recovery  of  my  free- 
dom, and  perhaps  the  establishment  of  my  fame.  But  my  pride 
was  soon  humbled,  and  a  sober  melancholy  spread  over  my  mind, 
by  the  idea  that  I  had  taken  an  everlasting  leave  of  an  old  and 
agreeable  companion,  and  that  whatsoever  might  be  the  future 
date  of  my  history,  the  life  of  the  historian  must  be  short  and  pre- 
carious." 

I  had  already  twice  or  thrice  read  Gibbon's  Memoirs  of 
himself.  But  I  have  read  them  again  with  great  interest, 
on  the  spot  where  they  were  written,  and  whence  so  many 
of  his  letters  to  England  were  dated.  And  from  reading 
here  his  account  of  himself,  I  seem  to  perceive  that  his  his- 
tory was  of  a  piece  with  his  life,  as  indeed  and  of  course  it 
must  have  been.    The  light  by  which  he  wrote  his  History 

VOL.  V.   NO.  III.  28 


826  SWITZERLAND. 

of  Borne  was  the  same  light  of  the  understanding  as  that 
by  which  he  took  his  daily  walk,  and  sat  down  to  write  his 
Memoirs.  And  on  a  proper  examination  it  will  be  found  to 
have  been  but  a  poor  hmp  for  lighting  up  the  past,  and  let- 
ting us  see,  not  merely  the  movements  of  men  hither  and 
thither,  but,  more  important  still,  the  passions  also  which 
were  working  in  thair  faces.  An  achievement  of  great  in- 
dustry and  vast  learning  is  the  History  of  the  Decline  and 
Fall,  and  it  has  been,  and  perhaps  will  long  continue  to  be, 
very  serviceable  to  the  student.  But  yet  to  develop  the 
causes  by  which  Bome  fell,  we  all  see  that  the  philosophj, 
the  genius,  the  instinct  of  Gibbon  are  no  more  than  a  rash- 
light  would  be  in  the  Colosseum  when  black  with  darkness. 

Gibbon  was  a  Tory,  and  a  very  virulent  Tory.  He  dis- 
believed Christianity  and  derided  it.  And  yet,  too,  he  held 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  to  be  maintained,  and  with- 
out change  of  doctrine,  and  without  any  concessicm  to  the 
conscientious  scruples  of  clergymen  petitioning  Pariiament 
that  some  little  liberty  might  be  allowed  them  in  readiDg  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  The  course  of  Gibbon  as  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  was  that  by  which  in  all  ages  nations 
have  been  led  to  corruption,  decay,  and  fall. 

The  Christianity  of  individuals  and  of  large  classes,  monks 
of  the  desert,  kings  of  the  Groths  and  Visigoths,  emperors  of 
Bome,  and  many  others,  may  have  merited  all  the  sarcasm 
of  Gibbon ;  but  yet  he  is  repudiated  as  a  person  spiritually 
incompetent  to  judge  it  by  that  Christianity  which  began  in 
Judaea,  and  which  softened  the  agonies  of  Imperial  Bome 
when  she  fell,  and  which  raised  and  strengthened  for  a  bet- 
ter life  than  her  own  those  many  nations  whom  she  had 
ruled  as  little  children,  and  whom  she,  dying,  left  on  the 
earth  in  their  infantile  weakness. 

Gibbon  was  educated  here  at  Lausanne,  and  to  Lausanne 


SWITZERLAim.  S27 

he  returned,  in  conformity,  as  he  says,  with  a  wish  which  he 
had  always  cherished,  that  the  school  of  his  yoath  might  be- 
come the  retreat  of  his  age.  The  history  of  Gibbon  took 
much  of  its  character  from  the  Pays  de  Vaud.  At  the  very 
time  of  its  publication  there  were  men  connected  with  this 
northern  side  of  the  lake,  whose  thoughts  were  at  work  in  a 
way  which  made  Pftris  to  become  like  a  volcano,  and  all 
Sdrope  to  tremble  as  though  with  an  earthquake,  —  Voltaire, 
with  his  eye  so  sharp  for  the  detection  of  kings  and  priests 
as  impostors,  and  yet  with  his  sight  so  dim  for  those  powers 
hy  which  to  the  end  of  ^me  there  will  be  made  '<  kings  and 
j^riests  unto  God  and  the  Father," — and  Rousseau,  c<»ifess- 
mg  aloud  to  the  world  his  own  madness,  and  infecting  the 
world  with  iti  —  and  Marat,  pondering  with  himself  in  a 
BUinmer  by  which  privately  he  was  to  be  most  kind  and 
fnader,  a&d  yet  poblicty  be  a  monster  ravening  day  and 
it%ht  for  blood,  more  Isu^ly  than  even  the  guillotine  could 
yfeldil. 

In  the  e^^ry  preceding  the  last,  the  Puritans,  who  had 
been  refugees  in  this  region,  carried  to  England  those  seeds 
of  fhooght  which  grew  up  into  the  principles  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  into  the  sentence  of  death  on  King  Charles. 
And  when  ^ Church  and  King"  were  again  triumphant  in 
£Ei^nd,  here  lived  and  were  protected  several  of  the  judges 
of  Charles  Stuart,  and  among  them  Ludlow,  the  great  gen- 
enJ»  and  Broughton,  by  whom  the  sentence  of  death  was 
read  to  the  dethroned  monarch. 

But  indeed,  as  illustrating  the  influence  which  has  gone 
Ibrth  over  the  world  from  the  borders  of  this  lake,  what  more 
^significant  thing  can  be  said,  than  that  at  Geneva  Calvin 
preached  and  wrote,  and  had  John  Knox  for  a  student  ? 

And  besides  these  which  I  have  already  mentioned,  how 
many  other  names  there  are  associated  with  this  lake,  and 


828  SWITZERLAITD. 

names  of  great  eminence,  —  Farel,  Beza,  and  Casaabom 
as  theologians  and  reformers,  Haber  as  a  naturalist,  Necker 
as  the  minister  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  Madame  de  Stael  as 
an  authoress,  and  Sismondi  as  an  historian. 

And  now  it  is  night.  How  sweetly  it  came  on,  and  now 
how  beautiful  and  still  and  solemn  it  is  !  As  the  son  went 
down  behind  Mount  Jura,  the  shadows  lengthened  from 
trees  and  houses,  till  soon  it  was  all  shade  except  on  the 
tops  of  the  opposite  rocks  and  on  the  glistening  summit  of 
Mont  Blanc,  just  visible  here  between  two  peaks  ib  the 
Dent  d*Oche.  But  in  a  few  minutes  the  light  ceased  on 
the  mountain-tops.  And  then  in  the  beginning  of  the  twi- 
light, how  the  birds  seemed  to  rejoice,  —  the  swallow,  as  it 
twittered  on  the  house,-— the  swifls,  as  thej  chased  one 
another  screaming  through  the  air, —  the  blackbird,  as  he 
whistled  in  the  pine,  —  and  the  linnet,  as  it  hopped  among 
the  branches  in  the  orchard  below.  And  then,  after  the 
birds  one  by  one  had  become  silent,  and  while  the  sky  was 
slowly  darkening  above,  forth  shone  star  afler  star,  and  more 
and  more  brightly  shone  the  moon.  And  now  it  is  seventy 
years  ago,  this  very  hour,  since  on  this  very  spot  was  com- 
pleted one  of  the  greatest  and  most  famous  of  iDtellectual 
achievements.  Since  Gibbon  laid  down  his  pen,  the  citj  of 
which  he  is  the  historian  has  been  captured  more  than  once, 
and  society  throughout  the  whole  world  has  been  undergo- 
ing far  greater  changes  than  were  experienced  in  any  space 
of  seventy  years  while  time  was  measured  from  the  found- 
ing of  Bome.  But  this  scene  is  still  the  same  as  when  the 
historian  ceased  from  his  great  work  and  gazed  upon  it,  — 
hills,  lake,  and  mountains,  and  overarching  all  the  vault  of' 
night,  in  which  the  stars  are  as  they  were,  and  the  moon  is 
still  as  it  was.  The  objects  and  the  ongoings  of  nature  per- 
fected by  convulsions  and  progress  in  ages  long  since  past) 


( 


SWITZSRLANP.  329 

how  ihej  seem  on  a  calm  night  like  this  to  be  waiting  for 
the  nations  of  men,  till,  disciplined  bj  failure  and  success, 
tbeytoo,  one  hj  one,  come  into  that  perfectness  towards 
which  always  and  everywhere  all  things  seem  to  tend ! 

There  are  some  persons  who  are  disappointed  with  Swit- 
zerland. For  they  find  that  the  mountains  are  not  so 
monatainoiis  as  they  had  thought.  And  what  was  the 
pietoresque  costume  of  the  people,  they  find  to  be  not  very 
comiiKm  now,  or  ea^  to  be  seen.  And  they  find,  too,  that 
the  chalets  on  the  miountain  sides  are  not  so  pretty  as  Swiss 
tey-houses ;  and  that  the  chamois  is  never  to  be  seen  as  he 
leaps  from  rock  to  cliff;  and  that  the  Ranz  des  Vaches  is, 
after  all,  only  a  cow-call ;  and  that  William  Tell^s  chapel  is 
Tery  like  a  summer-house,  open  in  front,  and  containing  a 
statue  of  the  Yirgin  Mary  and  a  quantity  of  rude  prints. 
And  also  they  iSnd  the  much-vaunted  cascades  and  water- 
fkBs  to  be  merely  little  rills  trickling  down  high  rocks. 
And  h^leed  I  suppose  that  all  the  waterfalls  of  Switzerland, 
and  perhaps  of  all  Europe  besides,  would  not,  united,  be 
equivalent  to  the  falls  of  Niagara. 

Bat  truly  it  is  very  beautiful  and  grand,  and  worthy  of  all 
admiration,  this  country,  which  has  been  lifted  up  high 
above  the  world's  level  on  the  sides  and  the  summits  of  the 
Alps.  And  as  I  sit  here,  at  Coire,  this  quiet  rainy  day,  my 
recollections  of  the  country  which  I  have  come  through 
stiH  fresh  in  my  mind,  what  pictures  I  seem  to  have  gath- 
ered into  my  book  of  memory, —  pictures  of  scenes,  some 
so  sublime  and  others  so  beautiful,  —  some  of  such  a  quiet, 
peaceful  character,  and  others  of  places  where  the  rocks 
witness  to  the  almightiness  with  which  they  were  shaped, 
and  where  clouds  and  vapors  and  snow  and  roaring  waters 
and  rushing  winds  exemplify  the  forces  by  which  still  the 
world  b  kept  fresh  from  day  to  day,  a  living  earth !     Lakes, 

28* 


880  SWITZEBLAMD. 

moantaiod,  valleys,  —  of  the  grand  and  the  lovely  in  these, 
what  scenes  there  are,  all  over  this  country ;  —  lakes  like 
those  of  Zurich  and  Wallenstadt^  the  one  bordered  with 
villages  and  gardens,  and  the  other  embanked  with  high 
mountains;  valleys  like  that  of  Entlebuch,  where  the 
pastures  are  as  lawns,  because  of  their  being  so  green  and 
rich  and  neat ;  and  mountains  like  the  Jungfrau  and  Mont 
Blanc,  down  whose  wintry  sides  stream  the  beginnings  of 
rivers,  on  the  banks  of  which  in  distant  regions  summer 
ripens  the  vine  and  commerce  builds  its  quays. 

Crowded  with  mountains,  full  of  lakes,  rich  in  valleys, 
and  abounding  in  historical  memorials,  I  find  it  hardly  possi- 
ble in  Switzerland  to  select  individual  places  or  events  for 
description.  Do  I  remember  how  I  lived  a  short  pleasant 
tune  on  the  Lake  of  Greneva,  and  how,  morning  after  morn- 
ing, I  saw  the  rocks  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  lake,  yet  I 
cannot  describe  them,  because  of  the  glistening  point  over- 
topping them,  —  the  far  dbtant  summit  of  Mont  Blanc 
And  would  I  describe  Lausanne  standing  on  steep  hills,  or 
Zurich  looking  always  as  though  it  had  been  just  white- 
washed, or  Berne,  with  its  cloistral  sidewalks,  I  cannot  do 
so,  because  of  my  recollections  of  Lucerne,  and  its  many 
objects  of  interest,  —  the  quaint  streets  there, — the  covered 
bndges,  which  are  like  galleries  to  walk  in,  because  of  the 
many  pictures  with  which  they  are  adorned,  —  the  many 
towers  by  which  the  city  is  surrounded  from  behind, — the 
lovely  lake  in  front,  stretching  away  through  the  distant 
mountains,  —  and,  close  by  it.  Mount  Pilatus,  sometimes 
capped  with  a  cloud,  and  at  other  times  draped  with  mists, 
and  at  still  other  times  standing  up  in  the  clear  air  a 
presence  of  might  by  day  and  of  awe  by  night. 

To-day   the   weather   is  quite  fine.     And  I  have  been 
walking  about  the  town.     Coire  is  a  very  little  place,  bat 


SWITZEBLiLND.  331 

it  is  tbe  capital  of  the  Grisons.  It  has  old  gates,  and  the 
remains  of  the  old  walls  bj  which  once  it  was  fortified. 
It  is  in  the  midst  of  mountains,  and  is  situated  at  a  point 
where  meet  two  or  three  valleys,  or  rather  gorges.  The 
neighborhood  of  this  place  'is,  I  think,  almost  as  grand, 
beautiful,  wonderful,  as  any  scenery  which  I  have  known 
in  Switzerland.  Indeed,  in  several  respects  Coire  exem- 
plifies well  the  peculiarities  of  this  country. 

Switzerland  is  commonly  thought  of  as  one  land  occu- 
pied by  one  people,  —  a  people  distributed  in  cantons,  but 
yet  of  the  same  language  and  the  same  history.  But  this 
is  all  far  from  the  truth.  In  the  centuries  in  which  Swiss 
indep^idence  began,  each  town  fought  for  itself  against  the  old 
tyrannies,  and  in  almost  every  valley  the  inhabitants  strug- 
gled on  their  own  account  The  first  confederacy,  that  of 
the  three  little  cantons  of  Uri,  Schwytz,  and  Unterwalden, 
was  formed  about  the  year  1307.  And  it  was  not  till  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later  that  the  confederacy  of  the 
thirteen  cantons  was  formed.  The  Swiss  have  fought  with 
one  another,  and  have  held  one  another  tributary,  like  the 
fiercest  enemies.  By  the  government  of  Berne,  the  Pays 
de  Yand  was  held  and  taxed,  and  haughtily,  absolutely  ruled 
for  two  centuries  and  a  half.  Hound  such  towns  as  Lucerne 
and  Zurich  the  peasantry  were  oppressed  by  the  citizens,  in 
a  worse  manner  than  ever  they  had  been  by  the  bailifis  and 
governors  oi  Austria  and  Burgundy.  And  there  were  dis- 
tricts which  were  held  in  vassalage  by  the  cow-keepers  of 
Schwytz  and  Uri,  —  men  ardently  loving  liberty  for  them- 
selv^  and  glorying  in  their  connection  with  William  Tell 
and  Arnold  of  Melchthal.  In  some  of  the  cantons,  too,  in 
the  course  of  time,  the  people  lost  to  an  aristocracy  of  their 
own  that  liberty  which  they  had  conquered  from  Austria 
or  Burgundy. 


382  SWITZERLAND. 

At  the  Reformation  the  Swiss  were  divided  cantoo  against 
canton,  town  against  town,  and  sometimes  the  citizens  of  the 
same  place  one  against  the  other,  in  most  bitter  bloody; 
strife.  In  Switzerland,  too,  there  are  differences  in  lan- 
guage, which  are  sometimes  very  singular.  One  half  of  the 
countrj  is  called  German,  on  account  of  the  language  spoken 
there,  and  another  part  is  called  French  Switzerland,  for  a 
similar  reason.  At  Freyburg,  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city, 
round  the  cathedral  and  the  town-hall,  French  is  spoken, 
while  in  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  along  the  banks  of  the 
river,  the  common  language  is  Grerman.  The  town  I  am 
now  in  has  two  or  three  names,  —  or  rather  its  one  name  is 
spelt  in  several  different  ways,  because  of  its  being  the  re- 
sort of  people  of  different  languages,  —  and  it  is  called  Coire, 
and  Chur,  and  Cuera.  One  of  those  associations  of  villages 
and  towns  which  were  entered  into  by  the  Swiss  for  eman- 
cipation from  their  tyrants  took  its  name  from  the  cathe- 
dral of  Coire,  and  was  called  the  League  of  the  House  of 
God.  In  the  city  there  are  both  Protestants  and  Catholics. 
The  Catholics  are  few  in  number.  They  live  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  city,  round  the  cathedral ;  and  between  them 
and  the  Protestants  is  a  wall  of  fortification,  and  a  gateway 
with  double  gates.  Formerly  by  one  of  these  gates,  at 
night,  the  Protestants  locked  the  Catholics  in,  and  by  the 
other  the  Catholics  locked  the  Protestants  out.  Close  by 
the  cathedral  is  an  old  tower,  which  was  built  when  the 
country  was  called  Rhetia.  In  this  Roman  tower  a  British 
king,  Lucius,  is  said  to  have  been  martyred.  And  in  an 
iron  chest,  behind  the  high  altar,  in  the  cathedral,  it  is 
claimed  that  his  bones  are  preserved.  However,  the  great 
majority  of  the  citizens  of  Coire  are  not  interested  in  the 
bones  of  King  Lucius.  And  I  do  not  know  why  those  bones 
should  be  more  interesting  than  those  of  scores  of  other 


SWITZEBLANB.  333 

persons,  of  whose  heroic  deaths  the  people  of  the  Grisons 
know  more  and  are  more  fuUj  persuaded. 

The  Swiss  have  had  their  days  of  magnanimity  and  self- 
denial,  and  self-sacrifice  and  self-control ;  but  also  they  have 
had  their  seasons  of  universal  corruption,  of  selfishness  the 
very  worst,  of  mutual  jealousies  the  very  meanest,  and  of 
intestine  wars  the  most  disgraceful  and  cruel.  From  the 
land  of  liberty,  as  throughout  Europe  it  was  thought  to  be, 
during  several  centuries,  thousands  of  soldiers  were  hired 
by  the  rulers  of  France,  and  Austria,  and  Italy,  to  fight  the 
battles  of  ambition  and  tyranny.  During  a  long  period 
great  numbers  of  influential  persons  were  retained  by  bribes 
to  favor  the  cause  of  the  French  king,  or  that  of  the  Ger- 
man emperor.  At  one  time  at  Berne,  the  French  ambassa- 
dor, while  he  was  paying  pensions  granted  as  bribes  to 
some  of  the  nobles,  had  a  trumpet  sounded  ;  and  at  Frey- 
bnrg,  m  sight  of  the  people,  he  turned  over  heaps  of  dollars 
with  a  shovel,  asking  the  while,  whether  they  did  not  sound 
better  than  the  empty  promises  of  the  Grerman  emperor. 
Jealousies,  too,  among  the  Swiss,  at  one  time,  were  so  em- 
bittered, that  even  eggs  and  milk  were  not  allowed  to  be 
carried  out  of  one  canton  into  another.  Hardly  was  it 
possible  for  a  Swiss  to  settle  anywhere  out  of  the  canton 
in  which  he  was  born.  And  indeed  so  jealously  was  he 
regarded,  that  even  in  his  own  country,  outside  of  his  own 
canton,  it  is  said  that  he  was  almost  as  much  a  foreigner  as 
a  Swede  or  a  Persian. 

And  yet,  with  all  these  divisions  into  cantons,  and  all 
these  divisions  by  language,  and  these  ecclesiastical  and  re- 
Hgious  divisions,  the  twenty-two  cantons  of  this  country  are 
one  country ;  and  the  inhabitants  have  in  them  a  spirit  by 
which  they  are  one  people.  And  not  least  among  the  causes 
for  this  are  the  remembrances  which  they  inherit  in  com- 
mon, or  which  they  glory  in  for  one  another. 


8d4  SWITZXRLAKB. 

Commercial  interests  in  common,  ftnd  safety  in  union 
with  one  another,  —  these  do  much  to  make  of  many  dis- 
tricts one  country.  But  more  powerful  are  those  memorials 
of  the  past,  with  the  mention  of  which  all  hearts  throb  like 
one  heart.  And  surely  in  Switzerland  there  have  been 
heroes  and  heroic  days  worthy  to  be  perpetuated  on  the 
high  Alps  as  watchwords  from  i^  to  age,  —  men  like  the 
three  conspirators  of  Grutli,  with  whose  thoughtful  oaths  to 
one  another  and  before  God  Switzerland  first  began  to  have 
being,  —  heroes  like  William  Tell,  With  his  crossbow,  and 
like  Arnold  of  Winkelried,  with  whose  sacrifice  of  himself 
the  victory  at  Sempach  was  won,  —  and  days  like  those  of 
the  battles  of  Morgarten  and  Lampen,  —  and  events  like 
those  by  which  so  many  rocks  and  mountains  in  the  Appen- 
zell  and  the  Orisons  stand  as  though  inscribed  for  ever 
with  words  of  heroism  and  liberty  and  undying  fiune. 

On  a  fine  morning,  in  the  middle  of  September,  we  left 
Coire  for  Italy.  And  it  seemed  as  though  at  the  very  door 
of  the  inn  began  the  ascent  for  passing  the  Alps.  The 
capital  of  the  Orisons  is  elevated  above  the  level  of  the 
sea  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  or  a  little  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  But  to  cross  into  Italy  from  Coire,  the 
passage  is  over  a  mountain  elevated  more  than  a  mile  above 
the  level  of  Coire.  Like  a  wall  more  than  a  mile  in  height 
stand  the  Alps  between  Coire  and  Chiavenna,  —  a  wall  np 
against  which  are  piled  rocks,  through  which,  and  up  which, 
and  across  which,  slowly,  painfully,  and  wonderfully  the 
road  opens  on  the  traveller. 

Splugen  is  a  little  village  at  that  altitude  on  the  moan- 
tains  at  which  barley  scarcely  ripens.  There  is  a  hotel  at 
this  place,  at  which  most  travellers  pass  the  night.  It  is  a 
great  building,  of  a  cold,  bare  look,  somewhat  destitute  of 
comforts,  and  not  very  clean ;  yet  there  is  no  inn  which  I 


SWITZERLAND.  835 

have  ever  known,  which  has  been  so  bepraised  bj  its  guests. 
And  this  argues,  I  suppose,  that  the  people  who  staj  there 
think  less  of  their  lodgings  than  they  do  of  their  journey,. — 
the  wonders  they  have  come  through,  and  the  wonders  they 
are  going  to,  —  the  Via  Mala  below,  and  the  Splugen 
mountain  above,  and  Italy  beyond. 

A  bright  sunshiny  morning,  —  the  tops  of  the  surround- 
ing rocks  glistening  with  the  snow  with  which  they  have 
been  sprinkled  during  the  night,  —  the  air  bracing, —  the 
carriage  at  the  door, -» the  horses,  now  double  in  number, 
ne^ing  and  prancing,  —  the  coachman  cracking  his  whip, 

—  and  the  master  of  the  house  with  his  servants  standing 
by,  —  I  look  up  at  the  great  whitewashed  front  of  the  inn, 
and  I  too  think  that  it  is  a  good  inn,  a  pleasant  place,  an 
excellent  hotel.  Crack,  crack  goes  the  whip,  and  merrily 
sounds  the  voice  of  the  Italian  veiturino,  as  he  leaves  the 
Tillage  behind  him.  And  now,  in  a  minute,  we  are  on  the 
loi^  woodep  brieve,  which  rattles  under  the  feet  of  the 
horses.  Bat  now,  now  at  once,  it  is  all  up  hill,  up  a  road 
wheTQ  there  is  no  galloping  of  the  horses  nor  frisking.  Up, 
up,  up  we  go,  into  a  region  where  water  seems  to  trickle 
from  every  rock,  and  where  the  moss  upon  the  pine-trees 
grows  long  and  thick  from  being  kept  moist  by  the  rolling 
yapois.  Up,  up  we  go.  And  now  we  are  crossing  the  line 
which  is  the  boundary  of  the  pine-trees.  A  hundred  yards 
£Eurther  up  the  mountain  the  pine-tree  ceases  to  grow  even 
as  a  stunted  bush.  But  high  above  the  region  of  the  fir- 
tree,  and  all  up  the  mountain,  grow  butter-cups  and  daisies, 
hare-bells,  dandelions,  and  monkshood.  But  up,  up,  up  we 
keep  advancing  into  the  chill  and  silent  air.  The  sky  seems 
now  to  hang  low  upon  us,  and  to  be  of  a  darker  blue  than 
ever  we  have  known  it  before.     The  sides  of  the  mountains, 

—  how  they  have  been  scored  and  furrowed  by  the  winter 


336  8WITZEBLAKD. 

torrents !  And  yonder  glacier  reaching  over  the  mountain- 
side and  clinging  to  it,  —  how  beautifully  it  looks  upon  the 
brown  rocks ! 

Slowly,  slowly  we  ascend,  and  continue  to  ascend,  till 
suddenly  we  are  on  level  land,  we  are  on  the  summit  of  the 
mountain ;  and  far  away  through  the  deep  gorge,  through 
purple  mountains,  down  underneath  white  clouds  and  blue 
sky,  we  see  into  Italy.  A  few  yards  to  the  north  the  water 
flows  one  way,  and  a  few  yards  to  the  south  it  flows  another 
way.  So  near  they  are  to  one  another,  in  some  of  their 
sources,  —  the  Rhine,  which  flows  by  Heidelberg,  the  Dra- 
chenfels,  and  Cologne,  and  the  Po,  which  wanders  by  Cre- 
mona to  the  Gulf  of  Venice ! 

On  a  board  erected  here,  it  is  notified  that  here  Switzer- 
land ends.  Soon  as  we  have  noticed  this,  the  vettariDO 
mounts  the  box  of  the  carriage  again,  and  with  a  lively 
motion  of  his  hand  signifies  that  now  our  course  is  all  down, 
down.  And  down,  down  we  go.  After  a  minute  or  two  of 
descent,  we  are  on  the  face  of  a  precipitous  rock,  —  the 
precipitous  side  of  a  mountain.  And  now  backwards  and 
forwards,  on  sloping  ledges  cut  into  the  rock,  and  through 
galleries  carried  through  the  mountain,  easily,  yet  also  rather 
fearfully,  the  road  lets  us  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
gorge.  But  O  the  beauty  of  the  descent,  —  the  beauty 
of  the  snowy  tops,  as  we  descend  from  their  cold  level,  — 
the  beauty  of  the  green  pastures  far  below,  round  which 
every  minute  the  fences  become  more  and  more  distinctly 
visible ! 

It  was  wonderful  as  we  descended  it ;  but  looked  at  from 
the  bottom,  it  seems  still  more  wonderful,  —  the  road  by 
which  we  have  come  down  the  mountain.  Ah,  but  this  is 
the  first  Italian  village,  —  Pianazzo !  Here  we  rest  a  few 
minutes.     On  starting,  we  congratulate  the  coachman  that 


SWITZERLAND.  337 

the  Alps  are  crossed,  and  that  the  path  downwards  is  fin- 
ished. But  he  tells  us  that  there  is  yet  another  mountain 
to  be  descended. 

And  soon,  by  a  path  overhanging  another  lower  gorge,  we 
descend.  Down  the  mountains,  on  both  sides,  are  to  be 
seen  rills  falffng  in  cascades  ;  and  down  at  the  bottom  of  the 
valley  flows,  rushing  and  foaming,  a  rivulet  called  Mara. 
Down,  down  we  go,  through  groves  of  chestnut-trees,  across 
the  dry  beds  of  winter  torrents,  and  through  huge  rocks 
lying  about  like  the  remains  of  the  wars  of  giants.  All 
down  the  road  we  notice  how  beautiful  are  many  of  the 
young  women  and  children,  with  their  red  cheeks,  black 
eyes,  long  eyelashes,  and  thoughtful,  melancholy  expression. 

Down,  down  we  go,  and  still  through  chestnut-trees,  and 
past  herds  of  goats.  And  higher  and  higher  above  us  stand 
the  walls  of  rock,  fringed  along  their  tops  with  pine-trees. 

Ah,  yonder,  at  a  little  distance  farther,  is  Chiavenna,  our 
resting-place  for  the  night.  And  though  it  be  early  in  the 
afternoon,  yet  are  we  glad  to  remain  here.  For  we  shrink 
j&om  journeying  to  Colico,  with  our  senses  just  freshly 
sablimed  by  the  wonder,  the  beauty,  and  the  awfulness  of 
the  scenes  through  which  we  have  just  come. 

We  look  back  and  up  in  the  direction  of  the  way  by 
which  we  have  descended  from  Switzerland.  And  O  this 
pass  by  which  we  have  come,  —  this  pass  of  the  Splugen,  — 
it  is  grand  indeed !  It  is  a  worthy  entrance  into  Italy,  — 
the  secluded  garden  of  the  world,  —  the  native  country  of 
Dante  and  Tasso,  —  the  land  of  poetry,  and  passion,  and 
beauty,  —  the  land  of  old,  luxurious  cities,  down  upon  which, 
like  mad,  wasting  torrents,  again  and  again  from  the  Alps 
have  burst  invading  hordes  of  Huns  and  Goths. 

Of  Italy  I  shall  write  in  my  next  letter. 

VOL.  V.  NO.  in.  29 


888  JUDDOO. 


JUDDOO. 


There  was  a  bright  little  boy  in  Calcutta  by  the  name  of 
Jnddoo.  His  parents  were  Hindoo,  and  their  son  seemed 
destined  to  know  nothing  better  than  that  benighted  saper- 
stition.  But  Grod  had  other  designs  for  this  youth,  through 
a  human  agency  of  which  the  readers  of  this  Journal  are 
not  ignorant  At  the  age  of  eleven,  Juddoo  was  placed  un- 
der the  care  of  his  Uncle  Jogut,  who  is  a  teacher  of  a  school 
in  Calcutta,  to  which  both  heathen  and  Christian  children 
resort  Jogut  early  became  interested  in  the  instructions 
and  labors  of  the  Missionary  of  this  Association.  He  at- 
tends the  services  of  public  worship,  and  is  active  in  distrib- 
uting copies  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  and  of  good  books 
and  tracts.  He  has  thus  influenced  the  minds  and  lives  of 
young  persons  in  his  school,  turning  them  from  darkness  to 
light,  and  teaching  them  to  know  the  only  true  Grod,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  he  has  sent  In  this  way  his  nephew 
became  acquainted  with  the  truths  and  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 
Though  Juddoo  died  at  the  early  age  of  fourteen,  the  man- 
ner in  which  his  soul  opened  to  receive  the  new  truths  pre- 
sented to  it,  and  their  effect  upon  his  feelings  and  hopes, 
have  been  simply  but  touchingly  set  forth  in  a  letter  from 
the  uncle  addressed  to  the  Missionary,  which,  with  a  few 
comments,  has  been  published  in  Calcutta  as  a  tract  As 
we  have  received  a  copy  of  it,  we  reprint  the  larger  portion, 
because  it  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  sort  of  influence  which  our 
Missionary  is  exerting  over  many  youthful  and  inquiring 
minds.  Will  not  the  children  of  our  Sunday  schools  do 
something  to  send  light  and  hope  and  peace  to  thousands  of 
others  in  the  same  condition  as  was  Juddoo  ?  The  letter  and 
conmients  are  as  follows :  — 


JUDDOO.  339 

"My  dear  Father  and  Pastor:  — 

"  The  glorious  God  has  covered  me  and  my  family  with  a  dark 
cloud.  I  can  hardly  speak  now.  The  fair —  my  dearly  beloved 
nephew  is  removed  from  this  world  of  weeds  to  the  garden  of  Par- 
adise. I  will  give  you  a  brief  description  of  the  fair  child's  life 
as  a  Christian,  yea,  a  true  Christian ;  and  you  may  preach  it  in 
the  form  of  a  sermon  on  Sunday  to  the  congregation.  You  have 
seen  the  boy  more  than  once  in  Baboo  C.  C.  Singha's  school,  — 
the  boy  who  repeated  the  verse  before  you,  and  who  lately  got  the 
prize  for  drawing.  He  was  fourteen  years  old ;  brought  to  me 
firom  his  father's  house  when  he  was  eleven ;  untaught  and  super- 
stitious, a  Hindoo  by  birth  and  feeling. 

*•  1  labored  day  and  night  to  make  him  acquainted  with  the  rich 
iad  life-giving  doctrines  of  the  Saviour  Christ ;  and  he  was  glad 
not  only  to  say  he  believed  them,  but  even,  though  a  boy,  to  com- 
nmnicate  his  thoughts  to  others,  both  boys  and  girls ;  and  now  and 
then  to  his  own  father,  an  orthodox  Hindoo.  He  devoured  all  the 
instructions  which  I  gave  him.  He  would  ask  me  questions  re- 
specting Grod,  Christ,  the  future  world,  death,  resurrection,  atone- 
ment, always;  —  whether  in  walking,  eating,  in  school;  —  in 
shoTt,  whenever  with  me.  Though  these  are  solemn  and  serious 
tliiiigs,  he  seemed  to  have  understood  them  all.  Ah,  he  has  fully 
showed  and  wisely  expressed  the  tokens  of  his  acquirements  on 
his  death-bed !  How  divine  is  the  saying  of  our  Saviour, '  Father, 
thou  hast  revealed  it  unto  babes ! ' 

**  Day  by  day  I  saw  new  changes  in  him.  I  think  God  gave 
him  knowledge  of  the  shortness  of  his  career ;  and  therefore  he 
tried  his  best  to  be  a  true  follower  of  Jesus,  and  display  a  Chris- 
tian life  in  his  brief  span.  He  was  never  seen  in  anger  after  his 
conversion.  He  was  naturally  mild  and  gentle,  but  the  light  of 
Christianity  added  double  lustre  to  his  character.  No  boy  com- 
plained against  him.  He  was  beloved  of  the  whole  school,  neigh- 
bors, and  family 

**0n  Friday  last,  my  dear  Juddoo  was  attacked  by  the  dreadful 
eholera.  On  the  next  day,  Saturday,  the  loved  boy  remained  quiet 
until  noon.  At  two  o'clock  the  sickness  increased,  and  vomits  and 
motions  were  incessant.  We  sent  for  a  doctor ;  he  came,  and  said, 


840  JUDDOO. 

*  It  is  high  time ;  —  too  late ;  —  the  hoy  is  already  gone.'  We  ap- 
plied hlisters,  and  gave  medicines,  —  but  to  no  purpose.  Nothing 
could  bring  the  pulse  in  its  own  place,  or  make  the  body  warm. 
In  the  family  of  Hindoos,  what  shall  I  say  ?  Pressing  nearest  the 
bed,  I  asked  my  Juddoo  whether  his  conscience  is  clear  then,  oi 
not?  And,  to  my  great  surprise,  I  saw  him,  as  a  saint,  uttering 
slowly, '  O,  how  I  will  go ! '  '  Where,  my  dear  ? '  I  asked.  Look- 
ing at  me,  and  tenderly  folding  my  neck  by  his  little  arms,  '  To 
my  Father,  uncle,  and  to  my  Saviour  in  heaven.'  '  Dear  Juddoo, 
have  you  said  your  prayers?'  *Yes,  —  O  yes,'  (in  a  faltering 
tone,)  *  I  am  only  thinking  of  Father  of  all  children  of  men;  — I 
cannot  speak  in  English  correctly.' 

'*  I  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  his  sufferings,  and  I  went  out  of 
the  room,  rejoicing  that  he  will  die  a  happy  death,  and  that  he  has 
not  forgotten  the  name  of  only  Grod  and  Saviour,  which  he  so  dil- 
igently learned.  Perceiving  his  end  very  near,  he  no  longer  con- 
cealed his  profession.  He  began  to  say  openly  [in  Bengali],  '0 
good  women,  who  are  sitting  around  me,  tell,  I  beseech  you,  tell 
me  the  name  of  God,  only  God  I '  His  grandmother  told  *  Juddoo, 
here  is  a  flower  of  Sitolah  goddess  for  you.'  '  Cease  to  say  so, 
grand mofher !  I  am  not  a  child  of  Sitolah,  but  of  the  Father  of 
all ;  I  am  not  a  Hindoo,  but  a  disciple  of  Christ ! '  The  throng, 
amazed  at  this  word,  looked  at  each  other :  '  What  a  reasoning  in 
the  babe!  and  who  is  this  Saviour?  We  do  not  know  these 
things ! '  Receiving  no  satisfactory  answer  from  any  in  the  crowd, 
(they  only  utter  the  names  of  Hindoo  gods  and  goddesses,)  Juddoo 
was  puzzled  and  began  to  cry  bitterly,  '  Where  is  my  uncle?  Call 
him  I  Tell  him  to  read  my  Scripture  lesson  to  me  !  Tell  him  to 
sing  I    Where,  O  where  is  he,  in  this  last  hour  of  mine? ' 

'*  I  was  then  out  to  bring  some  medicines  from  the  doctor. 
When  I  came  home,  the  women  said,  '  Your  nephew  is  impatient 
to  see  you ;  come  quickly ! ' 

'*  I  entered,  and  saw  the  boy  lying  as  an  angel,  with  a  smile  on 
his  face,  and  brighter  eyes  which  I  ever  saw.  *  Come,  uncle ! '  he 
said.  *  Uncle,  you  are  the  only  man  in  the  whole  family  ;  you  are 
great.  These  speak  and  teach  lie ;  you  do  not.'  I  asked,  '  Juddoo, 
do  you  fear  to  die? '    *  Not  at  all,  uncle;  why,  I  will  go  to  my 


JUDDOO.  341 

Father  and  Saviour.'  *  Who  is  your  Sayiour,  dear? '  Smiliug, 
he  replied,  *  Christ ! ' 

"  Feeling  this  to  be  the  last  time  of  his  in  the  earth,  he  gave 
vent  to  reasonings  and  exclamations :  '  Uncle,  will  God  forgive 
me? '  *  Yes,  dear.'  *  My  sins  are  great,  now  I  remember  them 
all ;  I  have  spoken  lies ;  and  once  I  went  to  buy  some  oil  at  Va- 
rahree's  shop ;  he  forgot  to  take,  and  I  forgot  to  give  the  pice  for 
the  oil.  I  remembered  it  afterwards  and  did  not  give  him  the  pice ; 
I  am  sorry  for  it:  now  will  God,  Father  of  all,  forgive  me?  Once 
I  determined  to  pick  mangoes  from  a  man's  garden,  this  year,  but 
I  called  my  principles  to  my  aid,  and  was  safe.' 

"  *  Dear  Juddoo,'  I  asked,  *  do  you  believe  man  will  die? '  *  No, 
uncle !     This  '  —  pointing  to  his  breast  —  *  this  body  shall  perish, 

—  not  my  soul.' 

**  His  mother  and  father  being  then  at  their  house  at  Chamock, 
he  wished  to  see  them,  saying, '  Uncle,  I  am  really  sorry  for  them ; 

—  for  my  mother,  —  O  she  will  cry !  —  uncle,  console  her ;  keep 
her  here  for  some  time,  and  tell  her  she  must  meet  me  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Saviour.'  '  O,  how  I  wish  to  see  mother  I  now !  now ! 
here ! '  '  O  my  mother,  I  wish  to  see  you,  and  to  take  a  last  fare- 
well !     Mother,  it  is  you  who  bore  me  — ' 

**  I  said,  *  Juddoo,  do  not  cry,  we  can  do  nothing.'  *  O  yes,  un- 
cle, you  are  right ;  let  the  will  of  our  Heavenly  Father  be  done ! ' 
I  now  began  to  shed  tears.  *  Cease  to  cry,  uncle ;  rely  upon  God. 
I  am  going  to  a  fairer  world,  where  God  is ;  —  no  death ;  —  I  am 
glad.  Now,  uncle,  't  is  a  time  of  joy  for  me.  I  will  not  hear  you 
aing  any  more.  Sing  of  God,  and  I  will  join  my  tune  with  yours ! ' 
He  seemed  so  nearly  gone,  I  thought  he  will  only  hear  with  a 
louder  tone;  but  he  sang  more  than  twice, 

'From  all  that  dwell  below  the  skies,'  &c. ; 

and  again, 

•  Come,  wanderers,  to  my  Father's  home ! ' 

At  the  same  time  repeating  some  select  lines  from  the  Scripture 
lesson :  '  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.' 
'  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God.'  Then,  turning  to  the 
astonished  crowd  about  him,  *  Fray,  will  ye  not  talk4    I  wish  to 

29* 


342  JUDDOO. 

hear  70a ! '    Somebody  said,  *  Of  what  shall  we  talk,  Juddoot  of 
food  1 '     *  Ah,  is  this  the  time  of  speaking  of  food  ?     Speak  of  the 

Father ! ' 

**  Upon  his  grandmother ^s  saying,  *  These  words  are  not  worthy 
of  you  now,'  he  replied, '  These  are  the  principal  words,  and  worth 
speaking ! ' 

'*  Sometimes  he  bowed  with  his  hands  folded. 
~     '*  *  Whom  do  you  thank,  Juddoo  V  one  asked. 

**  *  Who  is  worthy  to  be  thanked  1 '  he  said. 

***  Whoishe,  Juddoo?' 

«*  *  Father !  God,  the  Lord ! ' 

**  In  the  mean  time  his  mother  came.  Then,  hanging  upon  her 
neck,  *  Mother,  mother,  0  mother !  Where  is  my  sister,  fttber, 
and  the  others  ?  Mother,  in  this  world  I  had  only  two ;  mother, 
you ;  and  Uncle  Jogut,  who  taught  me  of  God  and  Christ.  Even 
now  I  am  glad ;  behold  the  heaven  is  open ! ' 

*'  His  mother  said,> '  Juddoo,  do  not  fear ;  I  will  give  a  golden 
tongue  to  Kali  goddess,  and  — ' 

**  His  mother  going  on  to  speak  of  Kali,  this  disturbed  him  much. 
Unable  to  bear  it  longer,  he  cried,  *  Fool  Kali.  Give  fire  into  the 
mouth  of  Kali!  Pray,  mother,  do  not  tell  these  things  to  me! 
Speak  of  God,  whom  I  love ! 

'*  Then,  turning  to  me, '  Uncle,  prevent  them  who  will  take  me 
to  the  river'  (the  burning  place  for  the  dead)/  to  mention  the  name 
of  Gunga,  Shiva,  and  Rama:  tell  them,  if  they  would  speak, to 
speak  of  Grod.  Ah,  it  is  shameful  and  pity  that  men  do  not  know 
their  Creator ;  catch  hold  of  him,  and  be  glad.  I  will  see  you  all, 
uncle,  in  heaven.' 

'*  In  short,  he  spoke  in  such  a  way,  sufficiently  to  prove  himself 
as  a  Christian,  a  child  of  God,  a  saint ;  one  who  met  death  openly, 
bravely,  gladly ;  as  a  prelude  to  real  harmony  and  the  happy  state. 
He  was  sure  of  his  happy  fate ;  believed  God  and  Christ  dearly ; 
and  in  his  last  expiring  moments  manifested  the  faith,  joy,  love, 
meekness,  which  enabled  him  to  receive  '  the  cup '  with  gladness, 
and  to  die  without  a  groan.  After  saying  these  things,  plainly 
proclaiming  himself  as  a  lover  of  men,  God,  and  the  Saviour,  and 
a  Christian,  —  before  all  he  slept,'and  stopped, and  spoke  no  more! 


JUDDOO.  343 

"  The  men  and  women  are  all  in  a  state  of  profound  astiinieh- 
ment.  'What  ia  this?'  the;  siiid.  'He  spoke,  the  mere  boy, 
like  a  eaint!  We  have  not  heard  ihesB,  even  In  the  face  of  our 
priests.  Ab,  the  babe  lameated  for  hie  sin!  What  Bin!  Lies? 
What  has  Jogut  laught  him!  Strange  things  which  we  never 
dreamed  before;  which  gave  him  puwer  to  suffer  death  without 
Borrow ! ' 

"Now,  dear  psalor,  God  ia  in  eTerjface;  bul  I  have  lost  my 
light  hand,  in  my  nephew,  broilier,  and  a  son,^ — friend  and  de Bl- 
eat one.  Father  and  dear  pastor,  give  this  narrative  a  syatematic  . 
form,  if  it  please  you.  Such  a  life,  in  a  Hindoo  family  without  a 
pastor,  only  what  I  have  taught,  ia  very  rare.  Let  the  world  know 
the  power  of  Chriatianity,  felt  by  a  buy  who  has  but  faintly  aeen 
the  light  of  it;  and  who  has  not  read  a  page  of  the  Bible;*  who 
yet  defeated  abortive  death,  and  leaigned  himself  to  the  band  ot' 
God  and  Cbrisi. 

"Your  dutiful  son, 

COKCLUDIKG  "WOEDS,    BY    THE    CnITARIAN  MISSIONARY. 

."  On  receiving  the  above  deeply  interesting  letter  from  Baboo 
]ogut,  a  few  months  ago,  my  desire  was  to  see  it  in  type  as  soon 
u  possible;  particularly  as  the  schoolmates  of  the  deceased,  in 
their  anxiety  to  have  a  copy  of  this  memento  of  our  loved  Juddoo, 
pioniptly  contributed  of  their  poverty,  and  sent  me  two  or  three 
tupees  (a  good  sum  for  such  as  they)  towards  the  e:ipensea  of 
its  publication.  Moved  by  the  writer  of  the  letter,  t  soon  found 
lime  to  rewrite  it  into  purer  English.  Press  of  other  duties  de- 
iened  the  printing  of  it  fur  a  few  months;  and  now,  as  1  look 
upon  the  original  letter,  I  feel  that  it  speaks  with  more  touching 
power  unaltered  than  revised.     It  is  therefore  given  very  nearly  in 

its  original  dress,  and  left  lo  tell  its  own  story  in  its  own  way. 
"  In  Bubsequent  conversations  with  the  writer,  other  facts,  in 

keeping  with  those  already  given,  have  transpired,  a  few  of  which 

IciDDot  foibeai  to  add,  characteristic  as  they  are  of  one  child  of 

*  Except  in  Scriptare  Uumalj,  && 


344  JUDDOO. 

Bengal,  and  characteristic  aa  they  may  he  of  other  children  of  our 
misaion,  yet  to  arise  and  bless  Grod  for  our  presence  in  Asia. 

'*  When  Juddoo  saw  his  grandmother  weeping  bitterly  at  his 
fast  approaching  end,  he  cried  out  with  energy,  '  Grandmothei! 
atop  crying  I  Am  I  going  to  be  hanged,  or  as  a  prisoner  to  be 
confined  ?     Am  I  not  going  to  my  Father  and  Saviour  ? ' 

"When  making  his  peace  wkh  God,  Juddoo  remembered,  con- 
fessed, and  repented  of  a  sin  ofOumghty  that  had  never  passed  into 
an  act.  He  had,  on  a  certain  occasion,  entertained  the  thought  or 
intention  of  saying  what  was  not  true.  On  his  death-bed  he  was 
mindful  of  it,  and  pained  about  it,  and  repented  of  it. 

"  He  seemed  more  than  usually  exempt  from  that  tendency  to 
sloth  and  inaction,  which  is  supposed  to  belong,  by  inheritance,  to 
all  Asiatics.  It  was  one  of  his  favorite  proverbs,  *■  Shall  work 
drive  me,  or  I  drive  work  ? ' 

"Juddoo  was  a  Brahmin  by  birth.  His  surname,  Chatteijea, 
indicates  the  purity  of  his  Brahminical  stock.  Though  all  the 
Brahmins  in  India  will  tell  you  that  they  worship  only  one  God, 
and  despise  idols  as  nursery  toys,  few,  it  is  presumed,  would  do 
what  Juddoo  did,  to  prove  his  contempt  and  scorn  of  idols; — not  of 
the  men  or  women  who  are  misguided  worshippers  of  stocks  and 
stones,  among  whom  were  his  own  loved  and  honored  parents; 
but,  in  their  absence  from  the  temple,  his  fearless  ridicule  of  the 
pretensions  of  the  idol  itself  to  be  anything. 

"Since  Juddoo's  death,  the  fact  has  become  known  that  one 
day  he  took  a  companion  with  him  into  the  temple  of  Shiva  Koel- 
lansur.  This  is  the  chief  idol-temple  of  Bali,  a  town  of  ancient 
Brahmin  families,  —  half  a  dozen  miles  up  the  river  from  Calcutta. 
Entering,  in  the  absence  of  the  priests  and  worshippers,  Juddoo 
struck  the  idol  repeatedly  with  his  foot,  saying,  as  he  touched  the 
senseless  effigy  of  Shiva,  *  See,  how  he  defends  himself  I  A  pret- 
ty avenger  he  I  A  dreadful  avenger  indeed !  It  is  not  alive,  poor 
stone ! ' 

"  Such  was  his  way  of  expressing  that  disregard  of  the  power 
of  the  idol,  which  every  man  of  high  caste  in  India  professes  to 
feel,  but  which  few  will  so  bravely  demonstrate.  God  grant  that 
we  may  see  more  of  Juddoo's  happy  combination  of  tenderness  to 


JCDDOO.  345 

the  woraliipper,  and  consiBtent  deriaiDn  of  the  false  object  of 

worship .' 

"  Juddoo  clearly  jnticipaled  and  desired  an  early  depattare  from 
this  nurld  to  a  better.  Nothing  was  truer  to  him  than  the  wonJs 
of  the  Apostle  Paul,  '  To  die  ia  gain,'  His  whole  religious  life, 
from  the  time  he  gave  hiroeeirio  Christ,  was  in  keeping  with  what 
we  have  just  seen.  Hia  dying-  anlhem  was,  '  0  grave,  where  ia 
thy  victory?  O  death,  where  ia  thy  Bling!  '  He  that  gave  him 
death,  gave  him  hia  uppermoal  desire ;  hia  heart's  dearest  prayer. 
Something  may  be  allowed  to  that  constitutional  indi&renee  to 
death,  that  absence  of  a  strong  clinging  to  life,  which  partly  ac- 
couDla  for  the  Suttee,  and  makes  suicide  a  epoit  in  Hindottan. 
Yet  it  will  ever  be  true  that 

"Tia  a  dread  and  awful  thing  to  die.' 

"The  immediate  presence  of  death  is  always  appalling;  and 
Jaddoo's  way  of  meeting  '  the  death-angel,'  with  a  amile  and  an 
uuisltetched  hand,  wus  no  stolcbm,  but  a  lofty  triumph  of  faith  in 
God.  I  know  of  one  man  born  in  America,  who  can  well  recall 
hia  own  enthusiastio  longing,  as  a  happy  child,  to  die;  and  the 
frustrated  plans  by  which  he  intended  to  accomplish  it. 

"  It  seems  to  have  been  in  ezpcclation  of  aa  early  death  that 
Juddoo  was  so  unceasing  in  his  endeavors  to  leave  behind  him  dis- 
tinct records  of  his  faith,  through  Christ,  in  God.  With  pen  and 
pencil,  with  chalk  and  charcoal,  on  his  books  and  playthings,  on 
hia  clothing  and  on  (hat  of  near  friends,  on  the  vessels  from  which 
he  drank,  on  the  reverse  side  of  dinner-plates,  on  the  walls  and 
the  door-posts  of  his  home,  where  idolaters  are  aecustomed  la 
paint  the  mde  pictures  of  gods  and  goddesses,  —  nneeasingly  and 
everywhere  Juddoo  wrote  the  striking  words,  '  Glory  to  the  Fa- 
ther and  to  the  Son  1 '  '  God  bless  us  1'  '  God  be  with  ns  I '  and 
similar  espreaaiona.  I  have  lately  esarained  some  of  these  rec- 
ords, with  feelings  which  1  shall  not  attempt  lo  describe.  On  the 
walls  of  the  room  in  which  the  last  scenes  of  his  life  transpired, 
yoQ  may  still  perceive  iheso  records  of  faith.  There,  in  chalk, 
they  remain ;  except  that  some  of  the  most  cDOspieuous  have  been 
erased  by  his  grandmother,  on  acconnt  of  theii  Christian  stamp  and 
Kntt-idolatroos  meaning. 


846  JtTDDOO. 

"  After  the  custom  of  the  Hindoos,  they  burned,  not  bnried,  allX 
that  was  mortal  of  Juddoo. 

"  The  body,  the  clothing  of  his  spirit,  the  fleshly  heart,  the  vis- 
ible hand ;  not  the  soul  that  looked  out  from  his  mild  face ;  but  the 
eye,  the  ear,  the  lips,  that  God  gave  him  for  a  little  while,  through 
which  to  see  us,  to  listen  to  his  teachers,  and  to  speak  kindly  to 
us  all,  —  these  instruments  of  Juddoo's  true  heart  and  soul  and 
mind  and  will,  have  sought  their  kindred  ashes,  and  found  their 
natural  companionship  with  the  dust.     They  have  literally  turned 
to  ashes  in  the  fire.     They  now  lie  scattered  on  the  banks  of  the 
Granges,  or  float  in  its  eyer-moving  waters,  or  rise  upon  the  air 
when  these  subside,  and  the  scorching  wind  goes  by.     Thus  Jod- 
doo*s  body  has  no  churchyard  in  which  to  lie.     It  knows  no  grave, 
no  fixed  burial-place. 

*'  Still  Juddoo^s  glad  triumph  over  all  fears  of  death  reminds  us 
so  strongly  of  some  beautiful  lines  that  we  lately  read  in  an  Amer- 
ican publication,  *  The  Sunday  School  Grazette,'  that  we  will  give 
them  a  place  here  at  the  end  of  our  brief  and  insufficient  sketch  of 
a  death-scene  never  to  be  forgotten  by  those  who  knew  Juddoo, 
or  were  privileged  to  witness  his  departure.  These  are  entitled, 
*  A  Walk  in  a  Churchyard ' ;  though  we  prefer  to  give  them  the 
superscription :  — 

"  Faith  can  plat  among  thb  Graves. 

'*  "We  strayed  within  the  churchyard  bounds, 
My  little  boy  and  I ;  — 
He  laughing,  running  happy  round, 
I  pacing  monmfally. 

"  'Nay,  child !  it  is  not  well/  I  said, 
*  Among  the  graves  to  shout,  — 
To  laugh  and  play  among  the  dead, 
And  make  this  noisy  rout.' 

"  A  moment  to  my  side  he  clung, 
Leaving  his  merry  play, 
A  moment  stilled  his  joyous  tongue. 
Almost  as  hushed  as  they ', 


JUDDOO.  847 

"Then,  quite  forgetting  the  command, 
In  life's  exulting  burst 
Of  childish  glee,  let  go  my  hand, 
Joyous  as  at  the  first. 

"And  now,  I  did  not  check  him  more ; 
For,  taught  by  Nature's  face, 
I  had  grown  wiser  than  before, 
E'en  in  that  moment's  space. 

^She  spread  no  funeral  pall  above 
That  patch  of  churchyard  ground ; 
But  the  same  azure  vault  of  love 
That  hung  o'er  all  around. 

"And  white  clouds  o'er  that  spot  would  pass. 
As  freely  as  elsewhere ; 
The  sunshine  on  no  other  grass 
A  richer  hue  could  wear. 

"And,  formed  from  out  that  very  mould 
In  which  the  dead  did  lie. 
The  daisy,  with  its  eye  of  gold. 
Looked  up  into  the  sky. 

"The  rook  was  wheeling  overhead, 
Nor  hastened  to  be  gone ; 
The  tiny  bird  its  glad  notes  shed, 
Perched  on  a  gray  head-stone. 

"  And  God,  I  said,  would  never  give 
This  light  upon  the  earth, 
Nor  bid,  in  childhood's  heart,  to  live 
These  springs  of  gushing  mirth, 

"  If  our  true  wisdom  were  to  mourn 
And  linger  with  the  dead. 
And  nurse,  as  wisest,  thoughts  forlorn, 
And  call  the  grave  our  bed. 

"  O  no !  the  glory  earth  puts  on. 
The  child's  unchecked  delight. 
Both  witness  to  a  triumph  won, 
(If  we  but  read  aright,)  — 


848  SABBATH   LEISURE. 

"A  triumph  over  sin  and  death;' 
Vanquished  by  Him  who  saves; 
Till,  like  a  happy  infant,  Faith 
Can  play  among  the  graves  !  " 


SABBATH  LEISURE .♦ 

This  work  has  been  prepared  "under  the  impression 
that  in  the  Unitarian  Church  there  is  need  of  a  literature 
holding  a  kind  of  middle  position  between  the  formality  and 
rigor  of  specific  religious  writings,  and  the  lightness  and 
generality  of  ordinary  works  of  the  imagination.  It  was 
conceived  to  be  possible  to  offer  instruction  of  the  highest 
kind  in  a  form  which  might  prove  equally  attractive  and 
beneficial.  Works  having  such  qualities  would,  it  was 
hoped,  be  welcomed,  especially  in  the  leisure  hours  which 
remain  even  when  the  requirements  of  public  worship  have 

received  due  attention  on  the  Lord's  day Were  the 

editor  at  liberty  to  give  the  names  of  the  writers,  it  would 
appear  that  their  character  and  position  are  such  as  to  com- 
mand respectful  heed  to  their  endeavors  thus  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  a  literature  fitted  to  promote  religion  by  winning 
attention  from  the  young,  and  doing  something  to 
Sunday  at  once  pleasant  and  profitable." 

The  above  words,  taken  from  the  Preface  of  this 
fully  describe  its  design  and  purpose.     Its  table  of  contents 

*  Sahhath  Leisure ;  or,  Religious  Recreations,  in  Prose  and  Verse: 
snitahle  for  reading  in  the  Intervals  of  Public  Worship.  By  several 
Members  of  the  Unitarian  Church.  London :  E.  Whitfield.  1857. 
12mo.    pp.  346. 


SABBATH  LEISUBE.  349 

presents  the  titles  of  over  seventy  miscellaneous  articles, 
most  of  them  original,  while  manj  appear  to  have  been 
written  expressly  for  this  work.  Prose  and  poetry,  narra- 
tive and  didactic  pieces,  pleasant  stories,  and  interesting 
historical  anecdotes,  are  mingled  together,  the  whole  forming 
matter  sufficient  to  afford  interest  and  instruction  to  many 
hours  of  Sabbath  leisure.  We  may  glance  at  a  few  of  the 
articles  which  have  particularly  rewarded  our  attention. 

The  Confessor  of  Antiochj  a  Sketch  of  the  Early  Arians^ 
is  a  successful  attempt  to  set  forth  the  faith  and  spirit  of  the 
Unitarians  of  the  early  ages.  It  is  a  story,  of  which  the 
scene  is  laid  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  861.  The  author 
maintains  that  the  Arians  of  that  day  contended  for  essen- 
tially the  same  doctrine  for  which  the  Unitarians  are  now 
pleading,  namely,  the  derived  nature  of  Christ,  and  puts  in 
an  earnest  word  m  behalf  of  the  courage  and  tolerance 
and  progressive  spirit  of  those  primitive  defenders  of  the 
fiuth. 

The  ReUgion  of  Jesus  in  the  Catacombs  is  illustrated  by 
engravings  representing  the  rude  inscriptions  and  symbols 
on  the  early  Christian  tombs  ;  and,  though  short,  this  piece 
alone  is  worth  the  price  of  the  book. 

Father  Thomases  Conversations  with  his  Children  is  a 
kind  of  literature  of  which  we  wish  we  had  a  larger  supply. 
They  are  plain  talks,  such  as  children  and  unlettered  per- 
sons can  easily  understand,  setting  forth,  with  strong,  manly 
sense,  the  best  views  on  such  topics  as  these,  —  The  Re- . 
ligious  Sense,  The  Spirit-Father,  The  Spirit-World,  Immor- 
tality, The  Bible,  The  Divine  Life.  Some  of  the  numbers 
of  **  The  Christian  Monitor  "  attempted  many  years  ago  to 
supply  Unitarian  readers  with  the  kind  of  writing  we  allude 
to ;  and  we  hope  Father  Thomas  will  give  us  more  of  his 
sensible  talks. 

VOL.  V.  NO.  in.  30 


350  SABBATH  LSIST7RS. 

7%e  Guardian  Sister  is  the  name  of  one  of  the  longest 
stories  in  this  volame,  and  it  is  written  with  much  spirit  and 
life.      The   MaiderCe   Sacrifice^   or  a  Happy   Sunday,  is 
another  well-told  tale.     But  we   cannot  describe  at  an 
greater  length  the  nature  of  a  volume  which  we  cordialJ 
recommend  as  affording  something  agreeable  and  useful  fc^^ 
Sunday  reading.     Copies  of  it  are  for  sale  at  the  Eoozc^^ 
of  the  Association.     We  only  regret  that  the  paper  is  a^/ 
more  worthy  the  contents  of  the  book.    As  specimens  of  \ts 
poetry  we  quote  the  two  fdlowing. 

"  THE  CHURCH'S  PRAYER. 

''  '  Tothe  Father,  through  the  Son,' 
Did  the  ancient  ritual  run  ; 
So  the  Christian  prayer  was  said, 
So  the  Christian  vow  was  paid. 
Was  the  suppliant  bending  low, 
Where  the  Nile's  broad  waters  flow  ? 
Joined  he  in  the  choral  praise, 
Which  the  Seven  Churches  raise  ? 
Worshipped  he  in  gloom  and  fear, 
Roman  soldiers  lingering  near  ? 
Still  that  holy  prayer  was  one, 
*  To  the  Father,  through  the  Son,' 

'*  Years  have  come,  and  years  have  gone. 
And  the  Church  no  more  is  one ; 
Broken  now  the  bonds  of  love  ; 
Flown  the  peace-bestowing  Dove ; 
Broken  now  Christ's  cup  divine, 
Spilled  the  sacramental  wine. 
Other  prayers  to  Heaven  arise. 
Swell  the  new-made  Litanies, 
Single  homage  no  more  given 
To  the  Father-God  of  Heaven. 


SABBATH  LEISUBE.  351 

Only,  hoping,  watching  still 
Lonely  light  on  lonely  hill, 
Scattered  churches  here  and  there 
Echo  the  old  Church's  prayer. 
Pray  as  when  the  Church  was  one, 

*  To  the  Father,  through  the  SonJ 

'*  Years  will  come,  when  years  have  past, 
When  God's  truth  grows  clear  at  last ; 
When  the  broken  links  again 
Clasp  in  one  unbroken  chain ; 
When  to  all  one  Grace  is  poured, 
From  the  chalice  of  the  Lord  ; 
When  from  vast  cathedral  pile, 
When  from  far-off  coral  isle, 
From  the  ladder  angels  tread. 
From  the  dying  infant's  bed, 
Rises  one  united  prayer, 
Ringing  through  the  ringing  air, 
And  that  prayer  —  the  same  —  the  one, 

*  2b  the  Father,  through  the  8onJ  " 


«  TSE  CHURCH  OF  TODAY. 

*•  Two  hundred  English  churches 

Have  broken  their  iron  chain  ! 
Two  hundred  English  churches 

Have  sprung[into  light  again  ! 
And,  heart  and  voice  uniting. 

The  grand  old  faith  they  own,  — 
One  God  the  Father,  — one  only  God,  — 

And  one  Lord,  the  blessed  Son. 

*'  And  Priestley,  and  Lindsey,  and  Lardner, 
Are  leading  our  Church's  van. 


352  SABBATH   LEISURE. 

And  if  only  God  be  with  us, 

What  matter  the  wrath  of  man  ? 
What  matter,  though  Priestley  be  driven 

To  a  shelter  across  the  wave  ? 
A  greater  than  he  has  risen 

From  the  soil  of  Priestley's  grave.  ^^ 


(( 


But  ours  is  now  this  holy  torch, 

Dear  Christian  brethren,  all, 
And  shall  we  suffer  the  sacred  charge 

From  our  feeble  grasp  to  fall  ? 
Or  shall  we  not  keep  it  burning 

More  brightly  than  ever  before, 
And  pray  for  the  day,  when  its  light  shall  ray 

From  shore  to  furthest  shore  ?  " 


Ijr 
ht 


*•  O  Channing,  thy  words  sound  bravely, 

Like  a  message  that  comes  from  God  ; 
And  their  echo  rings  out  from  those  rocky  coasts 

Which  first  the  Pilgrims  trod ! 
And  wherever  those  words  have  fallen  '-^ 

On  the  hearts  of  sorrowing  men,  iisie 

The  sad  learn  hope,  and  the  sinful  turn 

To  their  Father  once  again.  --f.^ 


■^■•« 


**  And  now,  O  brothers,  to  us,  to  us 

That  torch  of  truth  is  given, 
Which  the  Saviour  himself  has  kindled 

At  the  altar  steps  of  heaven, 
Which  the  Lord^s  Apostles  have  handed  on, 

Which  has  blazed  in  the  martyr's  cell,  |  'c 

Which  has  shown  the  joys  of  the  world  above, 

Which  has  chased  the  glooms  of  hell ! 


fcisT 


L 


THE  afoHtles'  cbeed.  353 


THE  APOSTLES'  CREED. 

No  man  may  set  aside  the  genuine  Apostles'  Creed,  the 
*'  substa&ce  of  doctrine,"  given  over  and  over  again  in  the 
Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.     B7  that  every  Chris- 
tian must,  as  I  conceive,  be  bound.     During  a  late  trip  of 
four  or  five  hundred  miles  through  Eastern  Bengal,  I  found 
time  to  dissect  the  words  wherein  each  Apostolic  discourse 
is  reported ;  and  I  confess  that  I  was  hardly  prepared  to 
find  in  that  canonical  book  so  many  as  eighty-nine  distinct 
statements  of  Apostolic  teaching ;  eighty-nine  summaries  — 
some  longer  and  some  shorter  —  of  what  they  set  forth  as 
the  truth  of  God ;  the  cardinal  Gospel,  of  which  they  were 
the  appoioted  "  witnesses."     Here,  in  the  heart  of  the  New 
Testament,  are  what  I  am  tempted  to  call  eighty-nine  Uni- 
tarian discourses.     Rather  let  me   call  them  eighty-nine 
S3mopses  of  Apostolic  preaching,  not  one  of  which  remotely 
whispers  of  three  persons  in  the  Godhead/     Stranger  still, 
not  one  of  them  seems  to  say  anything  of  the  Son's  equality 
with  the  Father :  much  less  does  this  full  and  only  authori- 
tative report  of  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints " 
declare  the  equality  of  Jesus  with  the   Father,  though  it 
proclaims  him  to  be  "  a  man  approved  of  God "  through 
the  wonders  that  "  God  did  by  him."    (Acts  ii.  22.)    Nor  is 
the  Godhead  of  the  Holy  Ghost  once  hinted  at.  *  Here  is 
something  which  I  beg  may  be  explained.     How  is  it,  that 
God's  simple  unity,  and  the  manhood,  but  not  Grodhead,  of 
Jesus,  are  set  forth  in  all  the  eighty  or  ninety  discourses, 
—  not  of  Eusebius,  nor  of  Ignatius,  whose  Latin  epistles 
several  centuries  after  Christ  are  full  of  Trinity,  —  but  in  aU 
that  is  canonicaUy  recorded  of  the  preaching  of  the  twelve 
Apostles,  at  the  time  when  they  went  warm  from  the  imme- 

QA  « 


854        HEETINOS   OF  THE  EXECimTE   COMMITTEE. 

dlate  presence  of  Jesus,  to  declare  him  and  bis  Grospel  to 
the  world  ?  I  hope,  erelong,  to  print  in  a  convenient  form, 
right  out  of  the  Bible,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  as  thiis  declared 
by  their  own  mouths  ;  declared,  not  once  nor  twice,  nor  ten 
times  only,  but  fourscore  times,  and  always  Unitarian! 
Led  by  such  high,  irrefragable,  and  reiterated  testimony,  I 
have  come  fully  and  honestly  to  the  conclusion,  that  not  only 
was  the  whole  of  Christendom  Unitarian  "for  forty  years'* 
of  the  fourth  century  (as  our  brother  Trinitarians  allow), 
but  that  there  was  nothing  hut  Unitarian  —  or  at  least  no 
Trinitarian  —  Christianity,  until  far  on  towards  the  falling 
of  the  Dark  Ages  :  ages  whose  shadows  have  begun  to  move, 
at  last,  even  from  theology,  the  most  backward  of  all  the 
sciences.  This  blessed  result  has  appeared  only  since  the 
Bible  was  unlocked,  translated  from  dead  tongues,  and  freely 
given  to  the  common  sense  of  men :  and  this  general  dis- 
tribution of  the  Bible  commenced  less  than  a  century  ago, 
with  the  beneficent  labors  of  the  Bible  Society. 

c.  H.  A.  D. 


MEETINGS  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

January  11,  1858.  —  The  first  meeting  of  the  Board  in 
1858  was  held  this  day,  and  there  were  present  Messrs. 
Lothrop,  Hall,  Fairbanks,  Clark,  Fearing,  Alger,  and  the 
Secretary. 

Letters  were  read  from  the  Historical  Society  in  Chicago, 
Illinois,  thanking  the  Committee  for  the  gift  of  a  number  of 
our  publications,  which  had  been  duly  received  by  the 
librarian  of  the  institution.    It  had  been  previously  repre- 


MEETINGS   OF    THE    EXECUTIVE   COMMITTEE.        355 

ented  to  the  Committee,  that  the  room  of  the  Chicago 
listorical  Society  was  a  place  of  considerable  resort ;  that 
i  was  the  intention  of  the  Society's  directors  to  furnish  it 
dth  the  means  of  explaining  the  history  and  opinions  of 
11  leading  denominations  of  Christians;  that  already  the 
3sues  of  several  denominational  publishing  houses  had  been 
ilaced  upon  its  shelves ;  and  that  an  important  central  in- 
titution  of  this  kind  would  not  be  without  its  influence 
ipon  the  whole  region  of  the  northwestern  part  of  our 
jountry.  Upon  the  strength  of  these  representations,  the 
Board  voted  to  give  many  of  our  publications,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  this  library  does  not  belong  to  the 
3lass  of  public  institutions  to  which  the  Committee  have 
asually  confined  their  appropriations.  The  libraries  of 
colleges  and  academies,  and  city  libraries,  have  always,  on 
application,  received  a  gift  of  our  books.  During  the  last 
three  or  four  years  we  have  supplied  a  large  number  of 
these  institutions,  and  no  inconsiderable  expense  has  been 
incurred  this  way.  By  no  better  method,  it  has  been  sup- 
posed, can  we  place  our  theological  views  before  many  in- 
quiring minds.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  we  must  in 
general  confine  ourselves  to  the  class  of  libraries  here  in- 
dicated, or  we  shall  have  greater  demands  made  upon  our 
^eans  than  we  can  supply. 

The  Committee  on  Publications,  to  whom  had  been  re- 
ftrred  a  manuscript  work,  entitled  Seven  Stormy  Sundays^ 
I'eported  that  they  had  examined  the  manuscript,  and  find 
^t  to  be  a  series  of  religious  services,  —  prayers,  sermons, 
hymns,  meditations,  —  designed  to  be  read  by  persons  de- 
fined at  home  on  Sundays  in  consequence  of  stormy 
Weather.  The  sermons  are  from  the  pens  of  the  most 
[>opular  preachers,  and  have  never  before  been  printed.  The 
lymns  are  chosen  with  good  taste,  and  the  meditations  and 


m 


356        MEETINGS    OP   THE   EXECUTIVE   COMMITTEE. 

prayers  are  the  expressions  of  a  devout  and  earnest  spirit. 
It  is  understood  that  the  work  has  been  prepared  by  a  young 
lady  of  many  gifts  and  accomplishments  fitting  her  for  this 
service,  and  it  is  believed  that  these  fruits  of  her  pen  may 
afiurd  interest  and  instruction  to  many  persons  detained 
from  attendance  at  church.  It  was  accordingly  recom- 
mended that  the  work  be  published  as  Volume  VI.  of  the 
Devotional  Library,  and  the  Secretary  was  directed  to  carry 
this  vote  into  effect. 

It  may  here  be  added,  that,  in  accordance  with  the  above 
vote,  the  work  whose  title  is  here  given  was  immediately 
put  to  press,  and  will  be  issued  about  the  time  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  this  number  of  the  JoumaL 

It  was  stated  to  the  Board,  that  a  few  years  ago  a 
work  was  published,  called  "  A  History  of  the  Cross,"  by 
Rev.  William  R.  Alger.  It  is  a  little  devotional  book  of 
nearly  one  hundred  pages,  sketching  the  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  feelings  of  the  world  in  regard  to 
the  cross,  which  was  at  first  a  revolting  object,  because  it 
was  the  emblem  of  ignominious  punishment,  but  is  now 
everywhere  honored  and  beloved  as  the  symbol  of  our 
salvation.  In  this  change  it  finds  a  proof  of  that  great 
event  in  the  world's  history,  —  the  crucifixion  of  Christ, 
which  alone  can  adequately  account  for  this  effect ;  while  it 
alludes  to  the  various  uses  to  which  the  cross  has  been 
applied,  and  the  manifold  and  beautiful  literature  that  has 
been  gathered  around  this  object.  Written  in  simple  lan- 
guage, as  this  little  book  is,  and  breathing  a  most  reveren- 
tial and  devout  spirit,  it  was  believed  that  it  would  be  a 
beautiful  gift  to  the  sick,  and  to  members  of  Bible  classes, 
and  to  Sunday-school  children.  It  was  stated  that  copies 
of  this  work  might  be  produced  at  so  low  a  price  as  to 
invite  an  extensive  sale ;  and  accordingly  the  Secretary  was 
directed  to  have  them  ready  for  publication. 


MEETINGS  OP  THE  EXECUTITE  COMMITTEE.   357 

This  little  book,  having  good  paper  and  handsome  bind- 
ing, is  now  on  sale  at  the  low  price  of  fifteen  cents. 

A  letter  was  read  from  the  Rev.  President  Steams  of 
Meadville  Theological  School,  setting  forth  the  need  in  that 
institution  of  certain  text-books,  which  were  subsequently 
generously  supplied  through  the  liberality  of  an  individual 
member  of  the  Board,  and  of  Rev.  Dr.  Palfrey  of  Cam- 
bridge. 

Other  measures  were  discussed  at  this  meeting,  but  were 
not  matured  for  action. 

February  15,  1858.  —  The  following  members  of  the 
^oard  were  present  at  the  meeting  this  day,  Messrs.  Lothrop, 
J'airbanks,  Hedge;  Clark,  Rogers,  Hall,  and  the  Secretary. 

A  letter  was  communicated  from  Rev.  J.  C.  Smith,  our 
JVIissionary  at  Honolulu,  Sandwich  Islands,  who  had  safely 
arrived  at  that  place,  but  in  such  feeble  health  as  to  afford 
but  little  hope  of  successful  missionary  labor.  The  letter 
of  Mr.  Smith  will  be  found  on  another  page  of  this  Journal. 
The  Board  heard*  with  grief  that  the  prospects  of  his  resto- 
ration to  health  were  no  more  encouraging. 

A  report  for  the  year  1857  was  submitted  from  Rev.  Dr. 
Parley,  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Graham  Bequest,  from 
"Which  it  appeared  that  accruing  dividends  have  been  duly 
trwismitted  to  our  Treasurer,  and  that  the  amount  now 
safely  invested  in  bonds  and  bank-stock  for  the  use  of  the 
Association  is  $  10,036.  The  Secretary  was  directed  to 
express  the  thanks  of  the  Board  to  Dr.  Farley,  for  his  very 
exact  and  satisfactory  report. 

Information  came  to  the  Board  that  Rev.  Dr.  Lamson  of 
I)edham  had  it  in  contemplation  to  prepare  for  republica- 
tion his  learned  articles  on  the  Christian  Fathers,  which 
Ippeared  twenty  years  ago  in  the  Christian  Examiner, 


358  EXTRACTS   FBOM   LETTERS. 

wishing  to  rewrite  some,  and  to  revise  all,  and  to  publish 
them  under  the  general  title,  "  Unitarianism  of  the  First 
Three  Centuries."  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  Board  that 
such  a  volume  would  he  a  valuable  addition  to  the  series 
of  our  publications  entitled  the  Theological  Library ;  and 
the  Secretary  was  directed  to  express  to  Dr.  Lamson  our 
hopes  of  being  able  to  undertake  the  publication  of  such  a 
work  some  time  during  the  next  summer  or  autumn. 

Interesting  letters  were  read  from  E.  B.  Whitman,  Esq., 
of  Lawrence,  Kansas,  giving  an  account  of  the  present  con- 
dition of  our  church-building  enterprise  in  that  city,  and 
also  from  Rev.  J.  S.  Brown,  who,  in  the  temporary  absence 
of  Rev.  Mr.  Nute,  is  our  acting  missionary  there.  The 
excellent  letter  of  Mr.  Brown  will  be  found  on  the  next 
page  in  this  Journal.  Letters  were  also  communicated 
which  had  been  received  from  our  missionary  in  Calcutta, 
the  substance  of  which  will  be  found  under  their  appro- 
priate head. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

KEY.  JOHN   S.   BKOWN. 

During  the  past  winter  our  Missionary  in  Kansas,  Rev. 
Mr.  Nute,  has  passed  a  few  months  in  Massachusetts,— a 
relief  from  laborious  and  exciting  scenes  which  his  healtfl 
required.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  interests  of  the  misaon 
that  his  place  has  been  temporarily  filled  by  Rev.  John  S. 
Brown,  a  resident  of  Lawrence,  Kansas,  of  whose  accept- 
able services  we  have  frequently  heard.  Mr.  Brown  was 
formerly  pastor  of  a  society  in  Fitzwilliam,  N.  H.,  ano 


EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS.  359 

more  lately  of  the  Unitarian  Society  in  Ashby,  Massacbu- 
setts,  and  is  well  known  to  many  of  our  readers.  The 
Ibllowing  letter  from  him,  breathing  a  most  excellent  spirit, 
and  conveying  exact  information  of  the  present  state  of  the 
idigioas  interests  of  the  Society  in  Lawrence,  cannot  fail  to 
afford  satisfaction. 

''Lawrence,  Kansas,  January  23, 1858. 
**  Rev.  Dr.  Miles  :  — 

**  Dear  Sir,  —  Though  I  have  given  to  Mr.  Nute  a  regular 
,W9tMy  account  of  church  affairs  and  other  matters,  I  thought  I 
iioiild  like  to  send  one  letter  to  you  direct,  that  you  might  learn 
llie  state  of  religion  and  the  condition  of  our  society,  as  it  appears 
to  one  who  stands  in  the  place  of  a  somewhat  disinterested  ob- 
•erver ;  f(Hr  I  came  here  with  not  the  least  idea  of  preaching  to 
lifr.  Kate's  Society,  except  perhaps  giving  an  occasional  labor  of 
love  when  the  regular  minister  chanced  to  be  absent  or  indisposed. 
I  thought  that  I  might  exercise  my  gifl  as  a  kind  of  mission- 
ary here  and  there,  as  opportunity  should  offer.  But  as  I  have 
BOW  preached  regularly  for  something  over  three  months,  per- 
haps you  will  not  regard  it  an  intrusion,  if  I  should,  uncalled 
far,  give  an  account  of  my  stewardship.  Since  I  commenced  my 
labors  I  have  had  a  small,  though  attentive,  and,  as  it  has  seemed 
to  me,  an  interested  audience,  varying  from  sixty  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty.  The  number  of  hearers  has  increased,  rather  than 
diminished,  since  I  took  the  place  of  Brother  Nute.  For  a  few 
Sundays  previous  to  his  departure  for  the  East  our  elections  ab- 
MHrbed  all  other  interests,  —  men  could  think  or  talk  of  nothing 
•  9186 ;  consequently  our  regular  audiences  were  somewhat  broken 
In  upon,  —  our  Sunday  School  was  small  and  unpunctual  in  attend- 
•aee.  Things  continued  in  this  shape  for  some  four  or  five  Sab- 
Wths  afler  I  began  to  officiate.  Since  that  time  there  has  been 
an  improvement  in  attendance  at  church,  and  an  increased  interest 
in  tiie  Sunday  School.  Last  Sunday  the  attendance  both  at  church 
and  the  Sunday  School  was  larger  than  it  has  been  since  Brother 
Note  left,  —  larger  than  for  a  number  of  Sundays  previous  to  his 


860  EXTBJLCTS  FBOM  LSTTEB8. 

departare.    I  never  preached  to  a  more  earnest  and  atteDtire 
audience.     You  would  be  struck  with  the  erect  position  and  lis- 
tening attitude  of  the  hearers.     Not  a  face  is  turned  away  from 
the  speaker.     Not  an  eye  is  closed.     All  seem  to  be  as  in  tent  as 
though  the  words  spoken  touched  their  vital  interests,  their  high- 
est happiness.     This  strict  attention  I  attribute  somewhat  to  the 
habits  of  the  people.     In  this  new  community  they  are  obliged,  by 
the  peculiar  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed,  to  keep  wide 
awake,  to  be  on  the  alert  and  attend  to  what  is  going  on.    If 
they  forget  themselves  or  sleep,  they  will  soon  get  run  over. 

**  Then,  again,  to  four  fiflhs  of  the  hearers  Unitarianism  is  some- 
thing new.  Last  Sunday  I  fpund  that  ten,  out  of  the  thirteen 
adults  in  my  Bible  class,  had  been  educated  in  what  is  termed  the 
Orthodox  faith.  Their  views  of  God  and  man  and  human  destinj 
differ  widely  from  those  held  by  Liberal  Christians.  The  qaickeo- 
ing  thought  that  God  is  our  Father,  ever  watching  over  us  with 
parental  care,  leading  us  by  his  wise  providence,  guiding  us  by 
his  ever-present  spirit,  loving  us  with  an  everlasting  love,  is  so 
unfamiliar  and  so  striking,  that  they  are  forced  to  pay  attention ; 
they  cannot  help  listening. 

**  True,  they  have  heretofore  heard  the  name  Father  as  applied 
to  God,  but  the  length  and  breadth,  the  height  and  depth,  of  its 
meaning  they  have  never  realized.  Unitarian  preaching,  I  am 
constrained  to  think,  touches  a  new  chord  in  their  spiritual  na- 
tures, floods  them  with  new  light,  unfolds  new  truths,  and  de- 
velops a  new  experience ;  new  heavens  bend  over  them,  and  a 
new  earth  glows  beneath  their  feet ;  former  things  seem  to  hare 
passed  away.  Such  an  audience  calls  forth  the  deepest  and  ten- 
derest  feelings  of  the  preacher,  —  heart  beats  responsive  to  heart, 
face  answereth  to  face,  so  that  it  seems  easy  to  preach  and  easy 
to  hear.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that,  by  your  liberality, 
good  seed  has  been  sown  in  this  distant  region.  The  fatnre 
will  witness  the  harvest  The  people  here  are  ready  to  hear 
preached  a  Gospel  of  peace,  of  good-will,  of  infinite  love.  Thej 
have  left  at  the  East  some  of  their  sectarian  biases,  are  willing  to 
prove  all  things,  and  will,  I  trust,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 
I  have  had  lately  one  attentive  hearer,  a  good  Orthodox  woman, 


EXTRACTS   FROM   LETTERS.  361 

who  had  never  heard  at  the  East  a  Unitarian  sermon,  though 
living  in  a  Unitarian  community.  She  is  now  interested  in  our 
views,  and  says  she  shall  return  to  the  East  a  wiser  and  less 
bigoted  woman.  She  has  lost  her  husband,  and  will  go  to 
Massachusetts  in  the  spring. 

*'  But  notwithstanding  these  encouraging  signs,  truth  compels 
me  to  say  that  as  yet  we  have  but  the  nucleus  of  a  society. 
.There  are,  I  think,  but  few  who  are  really,  heartily  Unitarians. 
Many  sympathize  with  us,  attend  our  meetings,  who  have  for- 
merly been  connected  with  other  denominations,  some  Christians, 
some  Universalists,  some  Swedenborgians,  who  prefer  to  worship 
with  us  because  their  faith  harmonizes  better  with  ours  than  with 
other  sects.  Still,  there  is  little  cohesive  power  among  us ;  we 
are  not  welded  together  by  church  ties ;  there  is  little  concert 
of  action.  We  have  bad  no  common  work  to  call  out  our 
strength.  We  have  built  no  church,  we  have  met  round  no 
commuDion-table,  we  have  had  no  baptisms,  except  those  of  the 
Spirit.  We  have  been  brought  up  in  different  localities,  edu- 
cated under  widely  different  ministrations,  and  it  will  take  a 
long  time,  and  much  faithful,  earnest  work,  to  bring  us  together, 
so  that  one  will  and  bne  spirit  will  sway  us.  We  are  not 
alienated,  but  separated;  there  are  many  members,  but  no  body. 
I  am  sorry  that  we  do  not  know  each  other  better,  that  our  feel- 
ings and  aims  are  so  divergent.  But  such  things  must  be  in 
every  new  society.  We  are  not  peculiarly  situated  in  these  re- 
spects. Faithfulness  to  each  other,  fidelity  to  the  truth,  and 
time,  which  heals  all  things,  will  bring  about  a  better  state  of 
things.  Much  has  already  been  accomplished,  but  much  more 
is  to  be  done  before  we  can  become  a  living,  earnest,  working 
church,  compact  in  every  part,  and  animated  by  one  spirit. 
The  great  need  at  the  present  moment  is  union,  a  knowledge 
of  each  other's  spiritual  aspirations  and  wants,  a  coming  to- 
gether, a  communion  of  the  saints.  Every  one  in  this  new 
country  seems  to  dwell  almost  alone  ;  there  is  an  isolation,  a 
want  of  sympathy,  a  craving  for  companionship,  which  is  not 
easily  supplied.  Few  seem  to  have  leisure  to  call  upon  their 
neighbors.    Labors  of  every   kind   press   upon  us.    We   have 

VOL.  V.   NO.  III.  31 


362  EXTBAOTS   FROM  LBTT£BS. 

hooses  to  build,  wells  to  dig,  fences  to  make,  the  sod  to  break,  the 
seed  to  sow, —  in  fine,  we  have  to  get  a  living ;  these  matters,  e^er 
lying  right  in  one^s  path,  give  little  opportunity  for  cultivating 
the  social  afiections  or  attending  to  our  spiritual  concerns.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  minister  cannot  do  so  much  as  he  would ; 
the  selfsame  necessity  is  pressing  upon  him.  He  has  a  home  to 
make,  a  family  to  provide  for,  schools  to  establish,  political  mat- 
ters to  look  after,  and  a  thousand  nameless  distractions,  which  an 
Eastern  man,  among  stable  institutions  and  fixed  habits  of  life, 
does  not  dream  of. 

"  I  believe  Mr.  Nute  has  been  a  faithful  laborer.  He  has  done 
all  he  could,  all  any  one  could  do,  under  these  peculiar  difiiculties. 
I  find  that  he  is  respected  and  loved  as  a  Christian  minister  and 
an  honorable  citizen.  We  hope  he  will  return  in  early  spring  to 
carry  on  the  work  which  has  been  so  well  begun.  Kansas  is  a 
noble  field  of  labor.  I  know  of  none  so  promising  in  which  to 
sow  the  good  seed  of  a  free  and  pure  Christianity.  We  must  oc- 
cupy this  field.  Liberal  Christians  can  and  must  take  the  lead  in 
every  good  word  and  work.  The  true-hearted  at  the  East  must 
come  out  and  help  us  lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  truth  and 
justice,  of  freedom  and  peace.  If  you  will  have  patience  and  labor 
on  in  faith,  great  will  be  your  satisfaction,  noble  your  final  reward. 

''It  is  but  a  short  time  since  I  learned  that  papers  had  been 
sent  on  for  the  transfer  of  the  church  property  to  our  Society.  The 
matter  has  not  yet  been  laid  before  the  Society,  but  it  will  be  soon, 
and  receive,  I  hope,  a  final  and  satisfactory  action. 

**  I  would  be  glad  to  receive  a  letter  from  you  direct,  if  you 
have  it  in  your  heart  to  write.  I  have  not  written  all  I  intended 
when  I  commenced,  but  I  have  tried  to  give  you  a  little  sketch  of 
our  condition  and  prospects. 

'*  I  shall  labor  on  with  what  fidelity  I  can  till  the  return  of 
Brother  Nute.  I  hope  the  condition  of  the  Society  is  as  prosperous 
as  when  Mr.  Nute  left.  I  think  it  is.  We  have  formed  since  his 
departure  a  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society.  We  meet  once  a  fort- 
night. Our  new  Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School,  Rev. 
George  Hutchinson,  is  doing  well  and  building  up  the  school. 
**  In  *  Gospel  bonds,'  yours  very  truly, 

"  John  S.  Brown." 


extracts  from  letters.  363 

Rev.  Joseph  C.  Smith. 

In  the  following  letter  our  Missionary  to  Honolulu  in- 
forms us  of  his  safe  arrival  at  that  island,  but,  we  regret  to 
Udd,  with  such  impaired  health  as  to  afford  but  little  hope 
of  his  being  able  to  perform  the  services  which  he  desires 
to  render. 

"  Honolala,  Sandwich  Islands,  Dec.  6th,  1857. 
«  Rev.  H.  a.  Milks,  D.D.  :  — 

''Dear  Sir, — This  communication  is  chiefly  to  notify  you 
that  I  am  here  finally,  and  state  my  own  condition.    I  wrote  you 
lipom  MarysviUe,  while  slowly  recovering  there  from  the  firesh 
piostration  of  a  severe  disease  taken  while  tarrying  at  San  Fran- 
eisoo.    I  did  not  get  strong  enough  to  leave  till  about  six  weeks 
mnce,  and  then,  when  ready  to  come,  the  packet  was  unhappily 
delayed  hf  the  non-arrival  of  the  mail  steamer,  and  then  by  a 
severe,  odd  storm,  from  which  my  lungs  could  not  wholly  escape 
watEsriBg,    When  we  finally  got  to  sea,  I  recruited,  and  my  lungs 
began  to  heal,  and  were  doing  well  on  my  arrival.    Still  I  had 
liaen  better  before  leaving  MarysviUe,  and  I  hope  to  be  more  so 
soon  here.    My  lungs  are  already  more  quiet  and  free  from  in- 
flammation than  at  any  time  since  my  first  arrival  at  San  Fran- 
eiaco.    So  far  encouraging.    But  I  am  very  feeble  bodily,  and 
my  digestive  functions  are  weak,  and  when  flesh  and  strength  shall 
be  restored  for  any  active  life  is  very  uncertain.    If  I  cannot  re- 
cover here,  it  seems  as  if  I  could  not  anywhere.    I  am  enjoying 
the  fine  hospitality  of  Mr.  Marshall,  which  is  all  that  body  and 
miod  can  desire.    Mr.  Bond  I  have  not  yet  seen,  as  he  has  been 
quite  confined  at  home  recently.     I  shall  probably  see  him  in  a 
few  weeks. 

''From  the  little  conversation  I  have  had,  it  appears  as  if  this 
*fidd  was  iMte,^  if  I  could  have  come  at  first  as  I  hoped,  strong 
iox  the  work.  Grod  knows.  But  my  mission  has  been  so  delayed, 
that  I  know  not  but  you  have  long  since  set  it  down  as  a  failure, 
and  in  my  hopeless  condition  I  ought  to  have  returned  my  com- 
nusBiODy  that  you  might  hasten  to  do  better.    Still  I  have  done 


864  EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS. 

what  I  thought  right,  and  I  hope  some  good  may  yet  come  of  it 
to  our  simple  Gospel  faith. 

**  I  feel  as  if  this  climate  is  going  to  help  me,  though  not  to 
ability  to  labor  in  my  vocation  again.  I  will  confer  with  Mr.  Bond 
and  others,  as  early  as  possible,  on  the  object  of  my  mission,  and 
send  you  as  accurate  a  report  as  I  am  able.  Meantime  may  oar 
cause  flourish  elsewhere,  if  unhappily  delayed  here. 
"  Yours,  very  cordially  and  respectfully, 

"Jos.  C.  Smith.^' 

Rev.  C.  H.  A.  Dall. 

From  our  indefatigable  missionary  in  Calcutta  we  have 
received,  during  the  past  quarter,  no  less  than  fifty-two 
closely  written  letter  pages.  Some  of  his  letters  are  so  in- 
teresting, that  we  must  find  room  to  print  one  or  two  of  them 
in  full.  From  the  others  we  select  a  few  items  of  intelli- 
gence which  cast  some  light  upon  the  present  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  India  mission. 

None  of  Mr.  Dall's  labors  are  more  useful  than  those 
given  to  the  care  of  schools.  How  extensively  these  em- 
ploy him,  and  how  much  encouragement  he  has  to  bestow 
them,  we  learn  from  a  letter  dated  September  16th,  from 
which  we  take  the  following :  — 

*'  The  sweet  day  and  night  breezes  of  the  sea-monsoon,  show- 
ers and  all,  have  left  us;  and  the  pending  six  weeks  that  lie  be- 
tween the  sinking  of  this  and  the  rising  of  the  equally  pleasant 
land-monsoon,  make  one  of  the  two  'dead  points'  of  the  Asian,  or 
rather  the  South-Asian  year.  The  heat  is  now  scarcely  bearable 
without  an  early  closing  of  doors  and  windows,  and,  the  employ- 
ment of  a  Punkah  bearer  to  fan  you  all  day;  and  many  make  it  all 
night  also.  The  '  Doorga  Poojah '  holidays,  the  chief  idolatrous 
festival  of  the  Bengal  year,  begin  on  the  23d  of  September,  and 
last  eight  or  ten  days.  This  makes  the  present  three  weeks  a 
time  for  the  examination  of  schools ;  just  as,  with  you  at  home,  the 


k 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS.  865 

Pfc    college  examination  and  exhibition  days  precede,  or  fall  jnst  within, 
the  hottest  period  of  the  year.    Oar  work  is  already  grown  into 
f    fiKTor  with  so  wide  a  circle  of  intelligent  and  wealthy  natives  that 
r.:    I  haye  plenty  of  applications,  —  not  exactly  to  come  and  preach  to 
^    &em,  though  it  amounts  to  that,  —  but  to  come  and  address  the 
g;   mndience  gathered  to  honor  the  school  or  '  college,'  and  distribute 
.  Oir  witness  the  distribution  of  the  prizes.    Feeling  my  health  to  be 
;  almost  as  firm  as  ever  in  my  life,  I  seem  to  do  an  act  of  positive 
.    doty,  though  it  be  at  the  risk  of  coup  de  soleily  to  keep  moving 
£rom  town  to  town  and  village  to  village,  in  this  happy  business 
■1^  school  examinations  and  harangues.     Within  a  week  or  two 
'*    past  I  have  been  on  duty  in  this  way,  delivering  addresses  on  the 
bcHuidless  subject  of  true  Christian  education,  at  Ooterparah, 
Chiiisilrah,  and  Hooghly.    I  have  had  the  attention  of  numbers 
of  jOuiig  men  in  Calcutta,  at  the  Bethune  Society,  and  at  the  De 
Ijacy  Society  of  the  Metropolitan  College.    To-morrow  I  am  en- 
gaged to  give  the  day  to  a  government-aided  vernacular  school  at 
Baridiay  half  a  dozen  mDes  south  of  Calcutta;  and  on  Sunday  next 
I  most  start  before  sunset  and  travel  all  night  to  Baraseh  and  Go- 
lierdanga,  to  make  a  careful  investigation  into  the  work  of  my  en- 
Algetic  and  sensible  coadjutor,  Mohendro  Nauth  Mookerjea.  This  is 
-  tiie  man  who  appears  by  letter  in  our  Fourth  Half- Year's  Report 
oeikt  you  by  the  last  mail.   I  think  I  wrote  you  that  the  boys  of  his 
Sunday  school,  his  *  heathen '  Sunday  school  so  called,  had  sent 
me  down  the  money  to  pay  my  way,  so  that  I  might  be  sure  they 
urould  be  glad  to  see  me. 

**  P.  S.  September  19. — My  friend  Mohendro  Nauth  Mookerjea 
of  €roberdangais  at  my  elbow,  come  to  escort  me  in  gharry  and 
jialaiiqiiin  to  Groberdanga.  Thus  I  hope  to  learn  more  than  I  have 
;yet  bad  a  chance  to  know  of  the  interior  of  Bengal.  In  that  di- 
^ecstum  there  are  no  mutinous  Sepoys  to  rob  or  murder  us,  and  (D. 
'\.)  I  shall  be  able  thence  to  write  you  something  fresh  and  new 
^  Asiatic  life.  I  am  going  into  the  region  of  large  indigo  planta- 
tions, and  may  know  what  the  words  '  the  poor  ryot '  mean  before 
X  come  home.  Our  mission  premises  are  just  being  put  by  their 
Owner  in  complete  order,  with  a  new  face  on  brick  and  wood-work, 
inside  and  out.    The  building  is  a  very  large  one,  and  it  may  be  a 

Q1  « 


866  EXTRACTS   FBOM  LETTERS. 

full  month  cased  over  in  its  bamboo  scaffoldings.     It  is  four  years 
since  this  renovation  took  place,  and  we  trust  we  may  be  quietly 
busy  here  for  another  four  years,  or  nearly  that,  before  we  are 
routed  out  again.     As  soon  as  may  be  after  our  reinstatement,  we 
are  to  have  our  quarterly  celebration  of  the  Lord*s  Supper.  Would 
that  you,  or  Mr.  Fearing,  or  Doctor  Lothrop,  or  a  deputation  of  our 
Committee  from  Boston,  might  break  the  loaf  and  consecrate  the 
cup  for  our  circle  of  disciples,  more  than  half  Asiatics." 

In  his  next  letter,  dated  October  29th,  Mr.  Dall  gives  the 
following  account  of  his  visit  to  Goberdanga,  and  of  what  he 
saw  and  did  there :  — 

'*  A  fact  not  without  interest  in  connection  with  this  Goberdanga 
trip  is  that  the  '  Baboo,'  the  wealthy  native  gentleman  who 
pays  half  the  expenses  of  the  school,  while  government  pays  the 
other  half,  paid  not  less  than  fifty  rupees  for  my  road  expenses. 
He  sent  money  in  advance  wherewith  I  was  to  lay  in  'Europe' 
provisions  for  my  stay  with  him.  He  provided  a  two-horse  gharry 
in  which  we  rode,  Mohendro  Nauth  and  I,  to  Baraseh.  There 
he  had  his  own  palanquin  waiting  for  me,  —  the  handsomest  tray- 
elling  vehicle  of  the  kind  that  I  had  seen ;  as  fine,  indeed,  as  coach- 
lace,  mahogany,  silk,  and  green  morocco  cushioning  could  make 
it.  There  were  also  three  sets  of  bearers  in  waiting  where  the 
wheel  able  part  of  the  road  ended  at  Baraseh.  Thus,  lying  in 
state,  I  was  steamed  along  as  fast  as  twelve  panting  men  — four 
at  a  time  shouldering  the  *  polky '  beam  —  could  carry  me ;  and 
the  llamas  among  their  native  Andes  could  not  have  wrought  more 
merrily.  Thus,  while  I  felt  grateful  to  God  that  a  man  whom  I 
had  never  seen,  and  he  a  *  selfish  heathen  '  Bengalee,  should  hare 
laid  himself  out  so  generously  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  or  at  least 
of  Christian  education,  I  was  not  sorry  to  see  how  the  *■  dead  Asi- 
atic,' as  represented  in  my  *  polky-bearers,'  could  work. 

"  We  left  Calcutta  at  day-dawn  and  reached  Goberdanga  befort 
dark,  forty  miles.  I  could  read  and  write  (legibly  to  myself  at  least) 
on  my  polky  (palanquin)  pillow,  in  spite  of  the  jar  of  men  running 
and  joggling  on  all  day,  at  an  *  Indian  trot' ;  so  my  first  day  (Mot- 
day)  was  but  too  soon  over.   Tuesday  I  awoke  at  Goberdanga. 


EXTBACXS   FROM   LETTBB8.  367 

more  glorious  day  never  shone.  There  was  I,  the  only  white  man 
whom  the  people  had  seen  for  five  or  six  years,  in  an  airy  upper 
room  in  the  Baboo's  palace,  an  American  traveller  in  the  heart  of 
Asiatic  heathendom.  Not  surprised  was  I  to  hear  that  the  aged 
mother  of  my  rather  youthful  host  —  Baboo  Sarodha  Prosunno 
Mookerjea — had  shown  something  like  anger  at  her  son's  *  bring- 
ing a  Christian  home,  and  lodging  him  in  the  heart  of  the  family, 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  Doorga  Poojah,  the  chief  religious  festival 
of  the  whole  year  I '  Still  so  it  was ;  and  there  was  I,  with  oppor- 
tunities around  me,  occasions  for  our  Master's  triumph,  which 
St.  John  himself  might  have  envied.  Everything  was  fitted  to 
exhilarate  and  inspire.  I  had  been  deprived  of  sleep  during  the 
night,  as  much  by  the  novelty  of  my  situation  as  by  the  (to  me 
unaccustomed)  yell  of  packs  of  jackals  close  to  my  open  window, 
and  the  equally  musical  midnight  song  of  the  durwan,  the  gate- 
keeper, fully  matched  by  the  hideous  trumpetings  and  drummings 
of  the  (daily  and  nightly)  proceeding  Poojah,  or  service  of  the 
ten-banded  Doorga,  the  giant-killing  wife  of  Shiva,  the  Destroyer, 
whose  clay  image  I  had  gazed  on  the  night  before,  with  its  sur- 
rounding co-deities,  Sharasuttee,  Luckkee,  Gonesh,  and  Kartick, 
all  made  as  gorgeously  brilliant  as  was  possible  by  tinsel  and  span- 
gles, isinglass,  red  paint,  flowers,  polished  brass,  and  blazing  co- 
coannt  oil.  At  sunrise  of  Tuesday  I  was  instructing  a  knot  of 
inqniriers  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  chiefly  concerning  the  presence 
of  one  paternal  God  in  all  nature.  While  this  was  going  on,  a 
.saintly-looking  old  Hindoo  was  devoutly  worshipping  the  rising 
sun,  unmoved  by  our  (strange)  presence  there.  The  next  morn- 
ing I  found  the  same  man  in  the  same  spot  in  protracted  worship. 
I  made  what  use  of  the  fact  I  could  to  the  young  men  with  me, 
but  of  course  did  nothing  to  interrupt  the  wrapt  prayer  of  the  bald- 
beaded  worshipper.  The  young  men  could  well  understand  Eng- 
lish, but  between  me  and  the  ancient  Brahmin  there  was  hardly  a 
common  language. 

"  The  chief  part  of  this  day,  my  first  full  day  in  Goberdanga, 
I  gave  to  an  examination  of  the  school,  —  eighty  boys  present,  — 
in  reading  English  and  Bengalee,  in  definitions  and  paraphrasing, 
ia  grammar,  geography,  and  moral  questions,  &c.,  and  was  well 


368  EXTRACTS   FBOM  LETTERS. 

pleased  at  their  proficiency  and  behaTior.    In  my  pocket  journal 
against  *  P.  M.  of  Tuesday  '  I  find  the  following :  —  <  5^  o'clock. 
Here  I  sit  in  the  Baboo's  carriage,  behind  a  pair  of  splendid  white 
horses,  waiting  for  him,  the  great  man  of  Goberdanga,  to  come 
out  of  his  house ;  a  house  that,  with  its  lower  and  upper  ranges 
of  Tuscan,  Ionic,  and  wreathed  pillars,  would  nearly  suit  the  Mar- 
quis of  Westminster.    It  would  at  least  sufice  for  one  wing  of  lus 
**Eton  Hall," — if  it  were  completed  and  kept  clean.'    Strange 
how  many  of  these  elegantly  fa^aded  native  palaces  have  one  end 
still  unfinished,  and  lie  partly  in  ruins  ;  compelling  the  remark  of 
our  Lord's  parable, '  This  man  (or  his  ancestors)  began  to  build,  bat 
could  not  finish.'    My  journal  proceeds :  '  I  am  scribbling  just  now 
and  here  to  employ  my  eyes,  weary  of  looking  directly  into  those 
of  nearly  a  hundred  starers,  few  of  whom  appear  to  have  ever  be- 
fore looked  upon  a  white  man,  and  none  of  whom  have  ever  seen 
<*  a  man  from  America."    Nearly  the  whole  village  are  here.    0 
for  the  gift  of  their  native  tongue  I    They  appear  to  have  come 
out  as  to  a  wonderful  spectacle,  ^ —  not  excepting  a  portion  of  their 
women,  a  crowd  of  whom  are  peeping  down  from  the  Tooi  of  the 
palace.  All  come  to  see  a  man  who  is  called  "  a  Christian."  Close 
around  me,  gazing  intently,  I  count  about  seventy  men,  old  and 
young,  and  a  dozen  or  two  of  girls  and  boys.     The  Baboo  comes, 
and  I  descend  from  the  carriage  to  give  him  the  best  seat,  which, 
finally,  he  compels  me  to  occupy.'    The  *  Baboo'  (as  he  is  called 
par  excellence)  Sarodha  Prosunno,  a  man  of  23  or  24  years  of  age, 
is  one  of  the  best  specimens  I  have  met  of  Young  (progressive)  0 
Bengal.     Benevolence  and  good  sense  mark  his  face,  with  a  happy 
absence  of  that  subtle  and  sinister  and  approbative  leer  which  is 
but  too  characteristic  of  what  is  accounted  education  and  high 
blood  in  this  region  of  the  earth.    No.    This  man,  whose  actions 
tell  so  well  for  him,  is  a  man  of  few  words.     As  we  drive  on,  and 
there  are  none  to  hear  but  ourselves,  I  seize  the  occasion  to  speak 
freely  of  Jesus,  and  of  him  only.     Apparently  no  subject  could  be 
more  welcome.      *Yes.     His  teachings  only  are  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life.*     *  They  must  be  brought  home  to  every  man 
in  Goberdanga,  quietly,  wisely,  slowly,  and  surely.    Yet  we  must 
look  to  an  Almighty  seconder,  as  tremendous  obstacles  lie  in  the 


EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS.  369 

way,'  &c.  Such  was  the  drift  of  that  evening's  interview  with  a 
.man  who  has  life  all  before  him,  and  commands  much  wealth  and 
many  people.  With  God's  blessing  and  furtherance  something 
may  come  of  it.     I  went  to  my  rest  that  night  glad  and  grateful. 

**  The  next  day,  Wednesday,  the  23d,  was  the  day  of  my  visit. 
I  long  to  tell  you,  but  I  have  no  room  now  to  speak  of  it,  of  the 
way  in  which  caste  works,  —  how  it  interferes  with  almost  all  the 
natural  and  instinctive  expressions  of  brotherhood  between  man 
aad  man,  and  breaks  in  upon  even  a  Bengalee's  suavity  and  kind 
attentions  to  the  man  whom  he  most  delights  to  honon  He  must 
touch  no  sort  of  food  or  fruit  that  is  laid  before  his  guest,  neither 
can  he  give  him  a  cup  of  cold  water,  except  by  the  intervention  of 
a  pariah,  or  of  some  low-caste  or  no-caste  man.  True  it  is  that 
not  a  few  young  men,  who  have  come  to  years  of  discretion,  regret 
ity  and,  in  their  souls,  despise  this  caste  bondage.  Yet  they  say, 
as  not  knowing  what  to  do,  '  Let  me  touch  one  of  those  almonds 
on  the  tray  they  've  brought  you,  and  which  you  now  so  kindly 
offer  me,  and  my  influence  in  this  village  is  gone  for  ever ;  my 
school  is  mine  no  more,  and  all  the  work  I  have  begun  to  do  here 
—  disseminating  the  Scriptures  and  all  that  —  is  at  an  end.  Shall 
I  take  the  almond?'  Then  I  replied,  '  Let  me  see;  no,  not  yet. 
"  Be  wise  as  serpents  and  guileless  as  doves."  Bide  your  time. 
"  Watch  ye ;  stand  fast  in  the  truth ;  quit  you  like  men ;  be  strong, 
be  vigilant";  eternally  vigilant  to  destroy,  as  fast  as  you  may,  and 
tread  down,  the  unnatural  barriers  of  caste.' 

"  But  let  me  barely  state  the  work  of  the  day  (Wednesday)  and 
close  thb  letter.  This  was  the  day  of  the  school's  public  exami- 
nation and  of  my  harangue,  which,  contrary  to  the  usual  custom 
of  hearers,  they  begged  might  be  a  long  one.  The  address  (ex- 
tempore with  preparation)  did  occupy  about  an  hour,  in  Eng- 
lish of  course,  and,  though  it  urged  the  primal  need  of  the  relig- 
ion of  the  New  Testament,  it  was  followed  by  one  and  another 
native  gentleman,  who,  though  familiar  with  English,  addressed 
the  audience  in  their  vernacular;  and,  as  Mohendro  Nauth  subse- 
quently assured  me,  entirely  approved  all  that  I  had  said  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  in  its  essential  connection  with  education. 

"I  omitted  to  say  that  this  public  meeting  was  held  in  the  grand 


370  EXTRACTS   FBOM  LETTERS. 

hall  of  the  Baboo's  mansion/,  a  lofty  saloon  adorned  with  paint- 
ings (such  as  they  were),  and  tinkling  and  glistening  with  really 
splendid  cut-glass,  chandeliers,  &c.,  a  crystal  demonstration  of 
wealth,  of  which  the  rajahs  and  zemindars  of  India  are  particu- 
larly fond.     First  in  the  order  of  the  day  was  the  reading  of  my 
friend  Mohendro  Nauth's  report ;  a  well-drawn  statement  of  bis 
first  year's  labor,  in  which  he  took  care  not  to  say  one  word  of  his 
Sunday  school,  or  of  his  twenty  pupils  in  the  New  Testament. 
The  report  read  and  approved,  I  was  requested  by  the  Baboo  first 
to  examine  the  classes,  briefly,  in  their  seyeral  studies,  in  pres- 
ence of  the  audience ;  and  then  to  distribute  the  prize-books, 
thirty  or  thirty-five  in  number,  which  was  done.   Then  followed  the 
address,  which  was  partly  a  justification  of  the  Baboo's  generoas 
policy  in  establishing  the  school,  but  was  in  the  main  a  tissue  of 
facts  and  anecdotes  illustrating  the  danger  of  sharpening  the  io- 
tellect  alone ;  and  intended  to  prove  that  true  and  complete  edu- 
cation must  train  both  heart  and  soul,  and  mind  and  will,  to 
love,  to  worship,  to  know,  and  to  do,  according  to  the  instractions 
of  Him  who  said,  '  The  first  of  all  the  commandments  is,  that 
God  is  one,*  and  *  Thou  shalt  love  this  one  Father  of  us  all,  with 
heart  and  soul  and  mind  and  will,  more  and  more,  for  ever.'   Ba- 
boo Sarodha  Prosunno  made  me  promise  to  write  out  the  address, 
and  offers  to  meet  the  entire  cost  of  its  publication ;  a  strong 
temptation,  surely,   for  me  to  lay  this  added  straw  upon  the 
camel's  back." 

While  at  Goberdanga  Mr.  Dall  was  induced  to  extend  his 
journey  to  Dacca,  the  ancient  capital  of  Bengal,  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-one  miles  north-northeast  from  Calcutta.  In 
Dacca  he  was  invited  to  preach,  and  we  have  received  a 
Dacca  newspaper  advertising  the  services  he  conducted. 
On  his  return  he  writes  as  follows  in  the  boat  in  which  he 
crossed  the  Ganges  :  — 

**  I  am  just  now  returning  across  the  Ganges,  after  having  been 
invited  to  preach  Unitarian  Christianity  publicly  in  that  city  [Dacca], 
distant  by  post  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  miles  north-northeast 


EXTBACTS   FROM  LETTEBS.  871 

of  Calcutta.  All  this  region,  reckoning  two  hundred  miles  or  more 
northerly  from  the  sea-board,  and  of  a  breadth  of  two  or  three  hun- 
dred miles,  forms  the  Delta  of  the  Ganges,  and  of  other  great  rivers 
descending  from  the  highest  mountains  of  the  world,  the  Himma- 
layas.  It  forms  a  vast  net- work  of  rivers  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year.  But  now,  just  after  '  the  rains,'  the  country  is  a  magnifi- 
cent Venice  ;  a  congeries  of  islands,  accessible  by  boat  and  oars 
in  almost  every  direction.  Twenty  rupees  a  month  is  the  hire  of 
a  native  boat  with  four  rowers  and  a  steersman ;  ^ve  men,  who 
find  themselves  in  food  and  all  necessaries.  They  prefer  '  goon- 
ing,"  or  dragging  the  boat  at  a  slow  walking  pace  by  a  rope  at- 
tached to  the  top  of  the  mast,  though  at  the  present  moment  the 
rowers  make  the  boat  shiver  with  their  strokes,  and  it  will  be 
well  if  this  scrip  is  not  wholly  illegible.  There,  they  have  run 
aground,  and  now  they  are  tugging  at  the  sides  up  to  their  waists 
in  water.  A  mile  and  a  half  to  two  miles  an  hour  seems  about 
their  average  speed  ;  which,  compared  with  our  American  way, 
gives  time  for  reflection  on  our  boyhood^s  cry,  '  Go  ahead,  steam- 
boat ! '  It  is  quite  a  discovery  with  me  to  find  so  large  a  portion 
of  Bengal  accessible  at  so  cheap  a  rate,  and  you  see  how  easy  it 
18  for  a  colporteur,  with  a  boat-load  of  books  and  tracts,  to  avail 
himself  of  it.  The  climate  is  as  healthy  at  this  season  as  any  in 
the  world,  and  as  to  temperature,  for  these  five  months  to  come, 
is  unrivalled.  I  have  found  the  homes  of  European  gentlemen 
open  to  me  from  day  to  day  ;  and  the  whole  region  is  under  high 
cultivation  in  indigo,  sugar,  rice,  &c.  It  is  clear  also  that  cotton 
will  be  added  in  due  time  on  the  more  elevated  grounds,  in  a  way 
to  compete,  perhaps  successfully,  with  our  slave-grown  cotton  in 
the  Southern  States.  Could  you  not  send  some  good  Abolitionists 
to  cultivate  cotton  in  the  great  Dacca  district  ?  The  natives  weave 
it  so  fine,  that  a  dress  of  ten  or  fifteen  yards  may  be  pulled  through 
a  finger-ring.  I  've  seen  it.  The  country  now  invites  enterpris- 
ing men  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  And  if  it  should  pass  from 
the  East  India  Company's  rule  to  that  of  the  Parliament  of  Eng- 
land, —  which  is  confidently  looked  for,  —  Americans  will  press  in 
here,  as  into  another  California.  Where  men  abound  as  they  do 
in  Bengal,  and  are  glad  to  work  for  $  1.50  a  month,  there  is  little 


872  EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS. 

difficulty  in  turning  the  soil  into  gold.  Convinced,  as  you  and  I 
are,  of  the  fact  that  men  need  and  will  have  religious  instita- 
tions  wherever  they  go,  —  even  more  surely  than  they  demand 
educational  ones,  —  we  may  lay  aside  all  our  doubts  of  the  ulti- 
mate support,  in  India,  of  earnest  preachers  of  our  very  practical 
form  of  Christianity,  if  the  faith  be  only  held  up  long  enough  upon 
its  feet  to  feel  its  own  weight. 

"  The  district  of  Dacca,  to  whose  capital  I  have  now  penetrated, 
is  edged  by  the  Ganges  (the  '  Boori-Ganga,*  as  the  natives  call 
it,  meaning  Ancient  Ganges)  on  the  west,  and  by  the  Megna  and 
Bramapootra  (a  name  nearly  corresponding  to  our  Missouri,  Mad 
or  Boiling  River)  on  the  north  and  east.     I  have  formed  an  ac- 
quaintance, which  may  run  kito  correspondence,  with  some  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  Dacca,  both  Hindoos  and  Armenian  and  Euro- 
pean Christians.     By  the  way,  Syrian  Christians  are  said  to  have 
established  themselves  in  Dacca  four  hundred  years  ago.    Among 
those  who  have  generously  met  me  are  the  following  gentlemen: 
A.  Forbes,  Esq.,  the  editor  of  the  *  Dacca  News,*  their  only  news- 
paper; Mr.  Brennand,  the  Principal  of  the  Dacca  College,  who 
would  gladly  have  a  copy  of  Channing's  Works  for  the  library; 
a  Hindoo  friend  of  Unitarian  Christianity,  though  not  a  baptized 
man,  who  was  the  prime  mover  in  the  getting  up  of  our  public 
meeting,  I  mean  the  Deputy  Magistrate  and  Collector  Baboo  Oboy 
Churn  Mullick ;  and  a  young  man  of  property,  an  Armenian,  Mr. 
N.  P.  Pogose,  who  took  me  to  the  Armenian  church,  and  intro- 
duced me  to  their  priest,  but  who  laments  the  utter  deadness  of 
Armenian  preaching,  and  proves  his  sincere  interest  in  progressive 
and  advancing  truth  by  devoting,  himself  to  the  daily  instruction 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  boys,  —  a  school  which  all 
unite  to  praise.     The  Armenians,  as  you  may  know,  are  the  bro- 
kers and  money-dealers  of  several  cities  of  Hindostan.     They  are 
a  wakeful  and  inquiring  set  of  men,  and  of  late  are  beginning  to 
send  their  children  to  England,  and  to  other  parts  of  Europe, for 
education.     Their  Church,  however,  still  nominally  holds  to  its 
ancient  form  of  guidance  by  twelve  chief  priests  or  apostles,  head- 
ed by  a  patriarch,  who  resides  in  Armenia,  near  the  borders  of  the 
Caspian  Sea.     You  are  aware  how  heartily  the  American  Board 


EXTKACTS  FKOM  LETTEBS.  373 

of  Missions  rejoices  in  its  numerous  converts  from  among  the 
Armenians.  I  trust  that  erelong  we  too  may  rejoice  in  a  similar 
iMray.  These  men  are  usually  of  large  frame  and  broadly  built, 
^ith  splendid  big  black  eyes,  and  are  hardly  distinguished,  in 
dress,  color,  or  otherwise,  from  Europeans ;  say  Italians.  We 
must  gain  of  these  brethren  !  I  must  not  omit  to  say  that  my 
Dacca  friends,  the  editor,  the  college  principal,  the  deputy  magis- 
trate, and  the  progressive  Armenian,  with  others,  got  up  a  public 
meeting,  to  hear  about  our  mission.  It  was  held  in  the  hall  of  the 
Dacca  College,  and  was  attended  by  nearly  a  hundred  persons,  in- 
dading  several  Europeans  and  Armenians,  besides  those  I  have 
-mentioned ;  but  it  consisted  chiefly  of  the  native  teachers  and  older 
stadents  of  the  College.  (These  oars  nearly  shake  the  pen  out  of 
my  hand.)  So  surely,  everywhere,  does  the  awakened  Hindoo 
mind,  as  soon  as  it  throws  off  the  absurd  errors  of  Brahminism, 
even  of  Brahminical  geography  and  astronomy,  come  to  us  for 
theology,  and  the  simple  truth  of  Jesus.  Shall  not  a  prayer  of 
thanksgiving  go  up  from  our  mission-loving  pulpits  at  home,  for 
the  unanticipated  welcome  just  given  to  the  truth  which  we  love, 
in  the  eastern  and  interior  portions  of  Bengal? 

**  Let  me  hope  to  tell  you  more,  at  another  time,  of  my  pleasant 
experience  among  the  homes  of  the  indigo-planters.  I  should 
like  to  speak  of  the  way  in  which  the  Englishman  press  has  aided 
us,  at  a  distance  from  Calcutta,  that  being,  as  you  know,  the 
most  widely  read  paper  in  India.  Persons  to  whom  I  had  no  letter 
of  introduction  have  several  times  met  me  with  extended  hand, 
saying,  '  Your  publications  in  the  Englishman  have  reached  us, 
and  we  have  been  thinking  about  them.'  The  hospitality  of  our 
own  Kentucky,  Virginia,  Alabama,  and  South  Carolina,  prover- 
bial as  it  is,  does  not  surpass  that  of  the  indigo-planters  of  Ben- 
gal. The  very  fishes  have  learned  to  follow  my  boat  for  bread 
and  meat,  so  much  more  has  been  pressed  upon  me  than  one, 
travelling  alone,  could  possibly  appropriate*.  Every  successive 
day  has  been  a  bright,  and  I  trust  a  useful  one  ;  and  I  am  only 
sorry  that  I  have  been  able  to  put  so  very  little  of  it  upon  record. 
It  is  a  good  thing  that  one  finds  so  many  complete  families  now, 
where  a  little  while  —  say  twenty  years — ago  were  hardly  any  but 
VOL.  V.  NO.  in.  32 


874  EXTRACTS  JPBOH  LETTERS. 

monastio  bachelors'  homes.    I  have  been  privileged  to  gather 
arouDd  me  to  hear  my  stories  of  America,  and  in  particular  true 
tales  of  the  '  ministry  at  large/  circle  afler  circle  of  affectionate 
children,  —  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch,  boys  and  girls,  — who  al- 
most consoled  me  for,  though  they  could  not  make  me  forget,  the 
absence  of  my  own.    I  was  called  on,  in  one  home,  to  christen  a 
child  from  a  flower-crowned  domestic  font,  with  baptismal  hymns 
aided  by  the  piano  and  well-trained  voices  that  made  sweet  music 
of  Old  Hundred  and  the  Sicilian  Hymn.    In  another  place,  on  a 
Sunday,  I  was  happy,  upon  invitation,  to  go  through  a  full  service 
in  a  parlor,  including  sermon  and  all.     In  other  places  I  had  cir- 
cles around  me,  amounting  in  one  instance  to  seventeen  members, 
for  Bible-reading  and  morning  and  evening  prayer.   The  excellent 
and  heart-uniting  custom  of  grace  at  meals,  it  was  also  grateful  to 
my  best  feelings  to  be  often  called  on  to  ask  for  the  assembled 
family,  and  I  may  say  company,  as  this  is  the  season,  and  almost 
the  only  season  of  the  year,  when  the  planters  are  not  too  busy  to 
see  company. 

P.  S.  —  Calcutta,  October  22,  1857.  Returned  yesterday  to 
our  renovated  mission  room  full  of  gratitude  to  God.  Absent 
just  a  month ;  having  spent  the  four  past  Sundays  at  Burroy, 
at  Dacca,  at  Furreedpore,  and  at  Doradab.  I  find  myself  jost 
in  season  for  the  outgoing  mail,  which  is  well  done,  as  one  is  so 
ubject  to  currents,  and  running  aground,  and  uncertain  human 
labor,  in  the  peculiar  sort  of  travelling  which  it  has  been  to  me 
both  health  and  gladness  to  enjoy.  It  was  also  a  good  discipline 
to  be  placed,  for  days  together,  so  that  no  word  of  any  language 
would  avail  me  except  the  Hindostanee  or  the  Bengalee.  I  have 
also  had  for  the  first  time  a  chance  to  know  how  admirably  the 
Bengali  sticks  to  his  oar  or  to  his  polky-beam.  It  has  heightened 
my  hope,  not  a  little,  of  seeing  him  a  man  and  a  Christian  some 
day.  I  find  men  in  the  interior  speak  far  more  favorably  of  the 
native  than  they  do  in  Calcutta.  For  the  first  time  I  have  heard 
men  long  resident  in  the  country  talk  of  *  the  innate  fidelity  of  the 
Bengalee.'  Speak  of  him  as  anything  but  *  a  sneak  and  a  liar '  in 
Calcutta,  and  men  will  laugh  in  your  face.  I  now  hear  respectable 
men,  who  have  spent  most  of  their  days  in  Bengal,  say  that  the 


EXTBAOTS  FROM  X^ETTEBS*  ^75 

people  have  Mearned  rascality  from  contact  with  the  whiter'; 
mach  as  our  coantryman,  the  traveller  Greorge  Catlin,  speaks  of 
the  honor  and  purity  of  such  North  American  Indians  as  have  not 
yet  been  reached  by  *  the  blasting  border '  of  civilization.  More 
of  this  at  another  time.  Suffice  it  now  to  say,  that  my  faith  in  the 
Asiatic  nature,  which  was  very  feeble,  has  been  much  strength- 
ened by  a  month's  experience  of  direct  dealing  with  those  Ben- 
galis whom  Thomas  Babington  Maeaulay  shonld  have  known 
better,  before  slandering  then  as  be  has  done,  as  shirks,  cow- 
aids,  and  deceivers,  beyond  hope  of  manhood.  Next  to  an  im- 
proved opinion  of  the  Bengalee  people,  their  trustiness  and  their 
tenacity  of  purpose  in  their  accustomed  sphere  of  labor,  their 
loTe  of  truth  in  others,  and  hope  of  being  true  themselves,  I 
have  to  thank  God  for  what  I  have  experienced  of  the  catholic 
S{Hrit  and  hatred  of  sectarian  littleness  which  in  Bengal  allows 
Trimtanan  brethren  not  only  to  receive  a  Unitarian  lm)ther  into 
their  honses  and  bid  him  God  speed,  without  fear  lest  they  '  be 
partakers  of  his  evil  deeds ' ;  but  whidi,  asking  e^ndant  ques- 
tions for  conscience'  sake,  has  called  one  who  is  '  everywhere 
spoken  against,'  (at  least  in  and  about  Calcutta  and  among  his 
sectarian  brethren,)  to  be  among  them  in  labor  and  prayer  as  an 
hoBest-iniaded  minister  of  Christ  our  common  Lord.  Fifteen 
letters  and  eight  home  newspapers  reached  me  yesterday,  a 
fine  snpply  of  books  from  Crosby  and  Nichols  and  our  dear  friend 
Thomas  Gaffield,  which  left  Boston  on  the  11th  of  last  2^66n<ary  /  " 

In  his  letter  of  November  9th,  Mr.  Dall  gives  some  in- 
teresting details  in  regard  to  the  Yedantists.  He  refers 
also  to  the  tract  about  Juddoo,  the  larger  part  of  which  we 
have  reprinted  in  this  Journal,  and  introduces  us  to  a  zeal- 
oos  colaborer,  Major  Cress :  — 

"  There  seem  to  be  clear  indications  of  a  progress  towards 

Christianity  among  the  Yedantists.    There  is  no  branch  of  our 

work  which  seems  to  interest   our  English  brethren  more  than 

his,   if  we  may  judge  by  the  frequent  reference  made  to  the 

Vedaatists  ia  oui  letters  from  England.    Long  since,  we  saw 


876  EXTRACTS   FBOM  LETTSRS. 

that  there  mast  be  a  split  between  the  progressiyes  and  the  retro- 
gressives  among  the  '  Brahmoes '  (as  the  Vedantists  prefer  to  be 
called)  ;  and  I  now  learn  from  the  best  authority  that  the  rupture 
has  taken  place.     A  leading  point  of  the  controversy  lay  in  the 
use  of  a  known  or  of  an  unknown  tongue  —  that  is,  of  Sanscrit  or 
of  Bengalee,  a  dead  language  or  the  vernacular  —  in  their  com- 
mon prayer  and  public  anthems,  the  devotional  part  of  their  social 
religious  services.     Here  we  see  Martin  Luther  and  Pope  Leo  X. 
at  it  again ;  we  perceive  that  human  nature  and  its  wants  are 
everywhere  the  same ;  and  we  can  safely  prophesy  that  religious 
thought  in  Asia  is  entering  —  if  it  have  not  already  entered— 
upon  the  same  series  of  battles  that  are  recorded  in  the  history 
of  Europe,  from  the  days  of  Constantino  to  those  of  Fox,  Chal- 
mers, and  Channing. 

'*Two  distinct  and  dissentient  bodies  of  Vedantists  now  hold 
meetings  for  public  and  social  worship  in  Calcutta.  They  meet 
at  different  times,  —  the  Conservatives  choosing  Wednesday  night, 
and  the  Progressives  Sunday  afternoon,  —  in  different  rooms  of 
the  building,  of  which  I  once  sent  you  a  copy  of  the  trust  deed,  as 
drawn  by  the  catholic  pen  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago.  The  *  Brama  Somaj  '  —  the  conservatives  —  read  and 
sing  their  devotions  out  of  the  Vedas,  in  the  Old  Sanscrit,  which 
few  or  none  of  them  pretend  to  understand.  The  Hitoisheenee 
Shova  (Truth-seekers'  Company),  the  progressives,  turn  every- 
thing into  Bengalee,  that  they  may  both  pray  and  sing  and 
discourse  '  with  the  spirit  and  with  the  understanding  also.' 
Within  a  few  days  I  have  been  visited  by  some  of  the  *  Hitoi- 
sheenees '  and  invited  to  attend  their  monthy  meetings.  This  I 
shall  not  fail  to  do.  Their  secretary  tells  me  that  —  though  as 
yet  they  use  only  Bengalee  in. their  services  —  they  all  under- 
stand English.  I  cannot  doubt  they  will  some  day  admit  dis- 
coursing in  English.  They  publish  a  Bengalee  newspaper,  and 
have  begun  to  translate  Channing  into  its  columns  ;  and  have 
chosen  first,  *  The  Moral  Argument  against  Calvinism.*  Several 
of  them  are  anxious  to  buy  of  me  copies  of  Channing's  Works, 
which  I  regret  to  say  are  not  to  be  had  until  they  are  sent  me 
from  Boston.    I  have  copies  of  the  Memoir  and  of  the  '  Selected ' 


EXTBACTS   FEOM  LETTJBBS.  877 

volame,  but  there  are  half  a  dozen  ot  more  applicants  for  the 

*  Works '  whom  I  cannot  supply.  I  send  you,  by  this  mail,  a  copy 
of  our  last  tract,  called  ^  Juddoo's  Triumph :  The  Happy  Death  of 
Juddonauth  Chatterjea,  of  Bali,  through  Faith  in  Christ  the  Living 
Way  to  the  only  Grod,  the  Father  ;  briefly  given  in  a  Letter  to  his 
Pastor  by  a  Disciple  of  the  Unitarian  Mission.'  I  feel  as  if  this 
tract  would  make  as  deep  an  impression  as  anything  we  have  yet 
issued,  though  it  stands  on  the  list  of  our  Calcutta  publications  as 
Bumber  fifty.  The  Hindoos  will  be  stirred  by  it  because  it  reports 
an  open  insult  ofiered  to  one  of  their  most  renowned  idols,  the 
great  Shiva  Koellansur  of  Bali.  Nearly  all  the  boys  of  the 
Bali  Training-School  are  of  Brahmin  parentage,  and  I  shall  look 
with  deep  interest  to  see  its  effect  upon  the  attendance  there.  On 
the  other  hand,  those  of  our  Christian  missionary  brethren  who 
are  less  prejudiced  than  the  rest,  must  read  of  this  triumphant 
death  with  something  like  a  prayer  of  thanksgiving.  I  intend  to 
forward  you,  for  distribution  among  the  friends  of  our  mission  at 
home,  a  hundred  copies  of  it  by  a  ship  just  leaving  port,  the  Isaiah 
Crowell,  Captain  Turner.  Much  used  to  be  said,  in  Boston,  of 
our  need  of  narratire  tracts  ;  perhaps  this  may  supply  the  place 
of  one. 

"  We  have  several  letters  lately  from  Sergeant-Major  Cress,  who 
is  now  located  in  Central  Burmah.  He  seems  to  be  doing  what 
he  can  for  the  dissemination  of  our  views  there,  and  I  am  sending 
him  Norton,  Channing,  and  other  works,  as  I  have  opportunity. 
In  his  last  he  says,  *■  What  is  Truth  ?  has  long  been  uppermost  in 
my  thoughts.'  '  O,  what  a  fool  I  have  been  !  how  much  precious 
time  has  been  lost,  never,  never  to  be  recalled  !  how  much  might  I 
now  know,  and  have  been,  what  a  blessing  to  my  fellow-creatures, 
had   I  met  with  some  Unitarian  brother  a  dozen  years  ago ! ' 

*  Whose  is  the  fault?  Mine?  No !  God  knows  I  did  not  fail  to 
find  him  for  want  of  searching  after  the  truth.  What  have  Uni- 
tarians been  doing?  Where  have  they  shut  themselves  up? 
Where  has  their  influence  been  felt  ?  I  never  saw  a  Unitarian 
tract  till  the  end  of  1856,  but  of  the  tracts  and  books  of  other 
denominations  I  have,  read  hundreds  and  distributed  thousands. 
I  have  spent  many  a  pound  in  books  to  give  away,  and  little  did  I 

32* 


878  EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

think  I  was  disseminating  falsifications  of  the  word  of  God ! ' 
*  I  now  make  my  appeal,*  he  continues, '  to  any  Unitarian  brother, 
whether  in  Calcutta  or  in  America,  and  boldly  say,  In  the  name  of 
God,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  send  me  some  of  your  books! 
You  haTe  made  me  hungry,  give  me  bread  !     I  have  eaten  husks 
80  long,  that  I  am  nearly  starved.     You  have  awakened  a  thirst 
for  knowledge,  true  knowledge ;  now  satisfy  it ;  and  let  your  God 
be  my  God,  and  your  people  my  people.     O  ye  rich  Unitarian 
brothers,    if  any  there   be,   have  pity  on  a  poor,  newly-born 
brother ;  send  him  a  little  Unitarian  library,  such  as  might,  by 
the  blessing  of  God,  qualify  him  to  make  known  to  others  the 
love  of  God  to  mankind.     I  have  been  holding  forth  an  angry, 
revengeful,  bloodthirsty  God,  who  would  not  be  satisfied  till  he 
saw   the  innocent  blood  of  his  own   dear  Son   shed,  and  who, 
aAer  this  had  been    accomplished,    condescended  to  receive  sin- 
ners !     O  ye  Trinitarians  I  how  many  poor  souls  have  you  made 
to  dread  the  approach  to  their  reconciled  Father?      And  0  ye 
Unitarians!  where  has  your  money  been  squandered,  that. not  a 
book,  no,  not  even  a  tract,  reached  me  in  India  for  sixteen  years 
after  landing  on  its  shores.     Is  there  in  Calcutta  a  brother  able 
and   willing  to  provide  a  brother   with   tools   to  work  the  rich 
mine,  out  of  which  he  himself  has  digged  such  precious  truth?' 
"  Such  is  the  cry  that  comes  to  us  from  Thyet-mioo,  near  Prome, 
on  the  Irrawaddy,  far   up   in  the   interior  of  British    Burmah. 
You  are  aware  that  this  Sergeant-Major  Cress,  whose  term  of  ser- 
vice, twenty-one  years,  expires  —  in  a  pension  of  a  rupee  (fifty  or 
sixty  cents)  a  day  for  the  rest  of  his  life  — at  the  end  of  two  years 
and  a  half,  is  bent  upon  devoting  the  remainder  of  his  days  (he 
is  now,  I  think,  about  forty)    to   the  proclamation  of  Christian 
truth  and  a  Unitarian  Gospel.    This  purpose  has  been  entertained 
since  he  first  met  the  Rev.  William  Roberts  at  Madras,  a  year  or 
two  ago." 

Under  date  of  November  22d,  Mr.  Dall  writes  of  the  im- 
minent dangers  to  which  the  people  of  Calcutta  have  been 
exposed  during  the  late  rebellion,  and  suggests  the  formation 
in  Boston  of  a  society  for  the  management  of  the  numerous 


EXTBACTS   FBOM  LETTERS.  879 

and  growing  interests  connected  with  the  Calcutta  mission, 
or  a  revival  of  that  of  which,  thirty  years  ago,  the  late  Dr. 
Ware,  senior,  was  President. 

'*  If  it  has  disappointed  you,  or  any  of  our  friends,  that  I  have 
said  80  little  about  the  ^  mutiny,'  the  awful  conflict  that  still  sheds 
blood  like  rain  upon  Upper  India,  charge  my  silence  to  the  fact  that 
it  has  been  almost  as  difficult  to  understand  its  cause  or  causes  in 
Calcutta  as  in  Massachusetts.  It  seems  now  as  if  it  were  mainly 
confined  to  the  native  soldiery  in  league  with  the  *  budmashes '  as 
they  are  called ;  that  is,  as  we  should  term  them,  the  '  loafers  and 
rowdies  and  jail-birds,'  whose  name  is  legion,  in  every  Indian  city. 
Besides  these,  there  may  have  been  excited  in  the  bosoms  of  one 
half  or  one  third  of  the  people  an  undefined  longing,  based  on  the 
antagonism  of  race  and  religion,  to  drive  the  English  out  of  the 
land ;  or  a  feeling  like  that  which  finds  expression  at  home  in  the 
cry, '  America  for  the  Americans ! '  You  are  aware  that  the  pop- 
ulatioq  is  held  to  be  about  two  fifths  Mahometan  and  three  fifths 
Hindoo.  Several  eminent  Hindoos  have  addressed  me  lately  on  this 
Bobject.  I  refer  to  Prosno  Comar  Tagore,  the  clerk  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  Rama  Prasad  Boy,  only  surviving  son  of  the  Rajah  Ram 
Mohun  Roy,  perhaps  the  most  eminent  native  legal  pleader  in  In- 
dia, and  a  few  others,  who  say,  *•  Hindoos  can  have  no  real  sym- 
pathy in  this  rebellion.'  '  The  English  have  no  controversy  with 
us  Hindoos.'  '  They  came  to  Hindostan  and  conquered  our  con- 
querors, the  Mussulmans,  and  set  us  free.'  '  Mahometans  are  their 
antagonists,  not  Hindoos/  '  We  Hindoos  rejoice  in  their  coming ; 
we  rejoice  in  their  supremacy.'  Again,  the  acknowledged  head 
of  orthodox  (idolatrous)  Hindooism  in  Bengal,  the  Rajah  Rada- 
kant  Deb,  —  with  whom  I  have  occasional  conversations  on  the 
Bhagavat  Geeta  and  the  Hindoo  Scriptures,  —  told  me,  a  few 
mornings  ago,  that  he  thought  a  third  to  a  half  of  the  population 
had  felt  some  hope  that  the  rebellion  would  succeed.  I  could  not 
believe  that  Calcutta  had  been  in  danger  of  massacre  until  I  had  a 
conversation,  a  couple  of  weeks  since,  with  the  veteran  editor  of 
one  of  the  principal  newspapers  in  British  India.  It  was  only  pos- 
sible to  believe  it  after  I  had  heard  this  coolest  of  all  editors,  with 


880  EXTBACTS  FROM  LBTTBB8. 

Others  in  the  office,  declare  that  on  the  14th  of  June  last,  known 
as  the  ^  panic  Sunday/  a  mere  quarrel  among  the  Sepoy  leaders  (at 
Barrack  pore,  nearby),  who  had  6,000  or  8,000  men  armed  and  ready, 
saved  defenceless  Calcutta  from  the  hloody  fate  of  Cawnpore.  Then 
I  was  driven  to  my  knees  to  thank  God  for  deliverance  from  a  vio- 
lent death.  This  danger  occurred  more  than  six  months  ago,  and 
is  never  likely  to  return.  Some  considerate  men  declare  that  the 
same  danger  of  massacre  to  Calcutta  was  as  imminent  as  in  June 
last,  on  two  preceding  occasions.  It  was  first  frustrated,  they  say, 
according  to  testimony  recorded  in  the  government  Blue  Books 
(where  I  have  partly  read  it),  on  the  16th  of  January,  before  any 
European  suspected  that  trouble  was  brewing.  It  was  balked  and 
turned  aside  by  the  chance  (?)  shifting  of  the  native  guard  at  the 
gates  of  Fort  William,  but  for  which  change  of  sentinels  its  artil- 
lery, the  grandest  in  the  world,  would  have  aroused  us  from  our 
sleep,  to  fall  by  the  hands  of  assassins,  among  whom  the  city  has 
been  repeatedly  mapped  out  for  destruction.  The  guns  of  the  fort, 
you  well  understand,  conunand  all  the  shipping,  and  would  thus 
have  cut  off  our  last  refuge.  Again,  many  believe  that  a  massa- 
cre of  the  chief  citizens  of  Calcutta  was  only  prevented  from  taking 
place  in  the  Botanic  Garden,  just  below  us,  at  a  beautiful  bend  of 
the  Hooghly  called  '  Garden  Reach.'  A  magnificent  gala,  or  fete, 
or  '  tumasha,'  was  given  by  the  Maha  Rajah  of  Gwalior,  to  be 
attended,  they  say,  with  such  a  display  of  fireworks  as  was  never 
known  before  in  these  parts.  To  this,  government  and  its  officials, 
and  all-eminent  Europeans  (and  Americans)  were  invited.  This 
time,  also.  Providence  seems  to  have  interfered.  The  rising 
of  a  quite  unexpected  storm  dashed  the  scheme,  preventing  all 
but  the  more  venturesome  of  the  guests  from  crossing  the  river 
to  the  gardens.  So  it  should  appear  that  we  have  really  been  ia 
danger  of  our  lives.  God  be  praised  for  our  strange  deliver- 
ances ! 

"  Blessed  be  God,  also,  that  afler  a  storm  comes  a  calm.  Delhi, 
dreaded  as  another  Sebastopol,  is  taken,  and  *  order  reigns'  there. 
Lucknow,  the  second  Delhi,  the  last  few  days'  accounts  assure  us, 
is  subdued.  Precious,  precious  lives  in  great  and  fearful  numbers 
have  been  sacrificed.     And  now  we  who  remain  have  to  rejoice, 


EXTBACTS   FBOM  LETTEBS.  381 

with  heart  and  hand,  that  God  seems  so  signally  to  have  accepted 
the  sacrifice. 

*  The  flesh  will  quiver  where  the  pincers  tear ' ; 

and  80  it  is  not  strange  that  the  first  shriek  of  the  lacerated  heart 
of  England  has  resembled  nothing  so  mach  as  an  American  Indian 
war-whoop.  Following  hard  upon  that,  however,  comes  the  hu- 
man cry  from  the  pulpit  and  the  people,  '  Vengeance  is  God's ! ' 
Temper  retribution  with  mercy  1  Overcome  evil  with  good !  Pre- 
serve our  possessions  in  the  East  by  pouring  in  the  knowledge,  the 
religion,  and  the  men  of  the  West,  English,  Americans,  Euro- 
peans 1  The  '  Hurkaru '  of  to-day  loudly  echoes  the  home  call 
firom  Old  England,  '  Success  to  all  Christian  missions  in  India  I 
Greatly  increased  missionary  eflforts  should  now  be  made  to  gos- 
pelize  the  people  of  India ! '    Thus  God  is  with  us  of  a  truth. 

*'  And  now  as  to  what  we  are  doing  '  to  gospelize  the  people  of 
India.'  Have  you  yet  formed  among  our  churches  in  Boston  an 
Indian  Aid  Association  ?  or  done  anything  to  renew  the  old  So- 
dety  for  the  Promotion  of  Christianity  in  India,  of  which  dear 
old  Dr.  Ware,  senior,  was  President,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Tuckerman, 
of  sainted  memory,  the  Secretary  ?  You  may  ask  me  what  need 
there  is  of  any  such  thing,  and  what  work  there  is  for  a  society 
to  do.  As  briefly  as  possible  I  will  state  a  few  facts  in  reply. 
(1.)  A  lot  of  land  is  just  being  bought  for  the  erection  of  a  Unita- 
rian Chapel  in  Salem,  200  miles  southwest  of  Madras,  the  work 
of  obtaining  which  has  been  done  wholly  by  the  people  there, 
cheered  of  course  by  a  promise  from  Calcutta  to  give  fifty  dollars 
(100  Rs.)  towards  their  chapel  after  receiving  the  title-deeds  of 
the  land-lot.  Should  not  our  mission  property  be  vested  in  a  so- 
ciety at  home?  I  think  so.  (2.)  The  same  thing  is  going  on  at 
Chittoor ;  a  place  which  I  do  not  find  on  my  map,  but  which  I 
know,  from  Lieutenant  W.  R.  Johnson's  letters,  to  be  an  impor- 
tant and  frequent  station  on  the  edge  of  the  delightful  hills  (the 
Neel-gherries)  some  fifty  or  seventy  miles  northwest  or  west  of 
Madras.  (3.)  The  chapel  in  Secunderabad,  near  the  heart  of 
Southern  India,  is  appealing  to  Calcutta  for  help.  (4.)  In  Ma- 
dras itself  we  have  secured  a  lot  on  which  we  hope  to  build  a 


882  EXTRACTS  FBOM  LETTXKS. 

school-house,  and  by  and  by  a  chapel.  It  is  the  ground  hallowed 
by  the  associations  and  remains  of  the  residence  of  the  noble  father 
of  our  brother  William  Roberts,  the  Ram  Mohun  Roy  of  Southern 
India,  as  to  his  heart,  if  not  as  to  his  head.  (5.)  Near  Prome,— 
Tiz.  at  Thyet-mioo,  —  in  the  heart  of  British  Burmah,  is  a 
Unitarian  family,  to  the  father  of  which  family,  Sergeant-Major 
Charles  Cress,  I  haTe  lately  (tell  Mr.  William  S.  BuUard)  sent  a 
gift  copy  of  Norton  *8  *■  Text  and  Notes '  of  the  Gospels.  Mr.  Cress 
writes  well,  as  you  see  by  extracts  from  his  letters  in  my  last  He 
is  poor ;  that  is,  his  salary  hardly  meets  his  expenses;  and  I  wish 
we  could  do  a  little  to  help  him  place  his  two  sons  in  Calcutta  for 
education,  where  they  would  be  able  to  attend  out  Unitarian  Son- 
day  school.  He  has  become  a  Unitarian  on  conviction  within  a 
year  or  two,  and  would  gladly,  in  a  year  or  two  more,  when  he  re- 
tires on  his  pension,  devote  himself  to  mission  labor  among  the  peo- 
ple of  India,  with  one  or  more  of  whose  languages  he  has  become 
quite  familiar.  With  proper  uid  he  might  carry  forward  the  work 
of  the  Rev.  Robert  J.  Simons  in  Burmah,  when  that  white-haired 
disciple  departs  to  his  reward.  Major  Cress  has  yet  a  couple  of 
years  to  serve  with  his  regiment.  (6.)  We  have  every  prospect 
of  seeing  the  embarkation  in  seven  or  eight  weeks  of  Horooath 
and  Takoor  Dass,  the  two  young  men  whom  your  generosity  has 
encouraged  us  to  send  to  your  side  of  the  world.  A  native  gentle- 
man. Baboo  Rajender  Dutt,  has  offered  to  outfit  and  ship  the  two 
young  men  from  this  to  Boston  at  his  own  charges.  They  are  in- 
telligent fellows  both  of  them,  and  seem  to  have  honest  and  good 
hearts.  They  both  still  draw  salaries  as  teachers  in  government 
schools,  and  would  go  on  with  the  work  they  now  have  in  hand, 
and  which  yields  them  a  good  support,  did  we  not  bid  them  come 
over  to  us.  They  neither  appear  to  shrink  nor  flinch  as  the  time 
draws  near,  but  to  meet  it  with  joy  and  thanksgiving.  If  we  want 
to  retain  for  life  the  services  of  such  men,  we  must  have  it  done  by 
a  special  and  a  permanent  association.  (7.)  Last,  not  least,  our 
Belfast  friends  have  written  to  us  from  the  North  of  Ireland,  through 
one  of  their  four  pastors  (there  are  four  churches  there),  to  ask 
for  definite  estimates  and  the  full  cost  of  a  lot  and  good  school 
building  in  Calcutta.    I  took  the  Rev.  J.  Seott  Porter's  Belfast  let» 


EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS.  383 

ter  (asking  for  the  estimates,  &c.)  to  two  of  the  wealthiest  friends 

of  ham  Mohun  Roy,  P.  C.  Tagore,  and  the  sou  R.  Prusad  Roy, 

jRDd  it  has  resulted  in  a  promise  on  their  part  to  donate  freely  to 

enr  mission  a  handsome  lot  of  land  in  an  eligible  part  of  Calcutta. 

What  is  important  to  the  purpose  is  that  it  is  the  very  lot  on  which 

Sam  Mohun  Roy  taught  his  Engli^  school  for  Hindoo  boys.    The 

IK^bool-house  is  still  here,  and  that  with  tiie  lot  (more  than  one  third 

«#an  acre)  is  about  passing  Into  our  hands  on  the  single  condition 

Itet  we  shall  there  perpetuate  the  memory  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy 

%|r  ^6  erection  of  a  school-house,  and  of  whatcTer  else  we  please. 

H  k  next  door  to  the  Greneral  Assembly's  Institution,  and  near 

-Oomwallis  Square,  one  of  the  handsomest  and  healthiest  parts 

«f  Calcatta  that  lies  near  to  the  native  city.    Here,  if  we  choose, 

ioay  be  a  school-house,  chapel,  printing  establishment,  and  a  good 

idwelling-house  for  the  preacher  or  superintendent,  whoever  he  may 

be.     A  great  increase  of  power,  and  a  large  reduction  of  expense, 

^nrould  result  from  an  effort  which  should  place  the  proper  buildings 

<Hi  the  premises  now  freely  offered  us,  —  premises  whose  value  is 

now  estimated  by  their  owner  (they  have  passed  out  of  the  hands 

of  Ram  Mohun  Roy's  family)  at  10,000  rupees.    I  ask.  Does  it 

WKOt  appear  now  that  there  is  something  opening  upon  us  in  India 

of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  special  efforts  ?    No  society  need 

^  moie  generously  than  the  American  Unitarian  Association  have 

done  for  India  during  these  nearly  three  years  past.     My  only 

thought  in  the  matter  is,  that  the  work  is  so  broad  and  so  rich  that 

it'  may  justify  the  renewal  of  Dr.  Ware's  and  Dr.  Tuckerman's 

oociety,  which  seems  to  have  been  formed  side  by  side  with  the 

American  Unitarian  Association,  and,  for  aught  I  know,  by  its 

soggestion  and  furtherance.    God  help  us,  and  help  you,  and  grant 

that  we  may  do  our  common  duty,  whatever  that  may  be.     Sure 

it  is  that '  he  that  soweth  sparingly  shall  reap  also  sparingly ;  while 

he  that  soweth  bountifully  shall  reap  also  bountifully.' " 

Letter  No.  59,  from  the  "  Unitarian  Rooms,   Calcutta, 
December  24th,  1857,"  we  give  entire  :  — 

"  I  thank  you  for  yours  of  October  19,  received  just  two  months 
after  date,  enclosing  the  unexpected  favor  of  a  cheering  letter  from 


884  EXTRACTS    FBOM   LETTEBS. 

Dr.  Dewey,  dated  *  Sheffield,  Aug.  12,  1857.'  Such  letters  show 
a  sympathy  that  gives  us  fresh  energy  to  work.  They  really  do 
us  great  good.  Especially  do  our  committee  take  courage  from 
these  words  of  cheer,  that  come  and  whisper  of  heart  answering  to 
heart  from  the  other  side  of  the  round  world.  The  committee  see 
me  plodding,  plodding  on  in  my  work,  late  and  early ;  and  they 
see  a  certain  number  of  inquirers  daily  at  my  room.  Beyond  that 
they  know  but  little  of  what  I  am  doing,  or  of  its  influences,  here 
or  at  home,  until  they  receive  the  letters  from  Madras,  Salem, 
Chittoor,  Rangoon,  Cuttack,  &c.,  which  I  am  permitted  to  lay 
before  them  at  their  monthly  meetings,  or  else  when  they  assemble 
at  the  half-year*s  end,  to  hear  *  The  Report.'  The  clear,  affection- 
ate, and  mellow  style  of  Dr.  Dewey's  Works  has  delighted  all  our 
readers  ;  so  that  when  they  come  to  see  a  letter  written  to  us  with 
his  own  hand  and  his  own  signature,  they  turn  it  over  and  look  at 
it,  again  and  again,  with  a  pleasure  more  readily  conceived  than 
easy  to  be  told.  I  wish  you  could  see  the  faces  of  our  native 
friends,  how  they  light  up  when  I  read  Dr.  Dewey's  words  as 
they  are  here  in  his  letter  ;  where  he  says,  ^  I  earnestly  hope  that 
the  warm,  genial,  and  gentle  Oriental  nature  will  rise  to  meet  yoa, 
as  indeed  it  seems  to  do,  and  that  Divine  Providence  will  assign 
to  you  the  great  honor  and  blessing  of  effectually  beginning  to 
plant  in  India  a  pure  Christianity.'  '  Difficulties  and  discourage- 
ments there  will  be,  more  and  greater  than  we  can  know  of;  hot 
remember  that  thousands  of  sympathizing  prayers  are  with  yoa.' 
'  The  planting  time  is  not  as  the  reaping ;  we  sow  in  sorrow, 
often  to  reap  in  joy.'  If  Dr.  Dewey  will  not  be  offended,  let  me 
quote  one  sentence  more,  which  rings  like  evening  bells  on  the 
hearts  of  our  native  disciples.     Here  is  the  paragraph :    *  You 

speak  in  one  of  your  letters  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy I  had 

two  interviews  with  that  remarkable  person  in  London,  not  many 

months  before  he  died In  him  I  saw,  for  the  first  time, 

the  Oriental  nature  in  its  easy  grace,  its  expansion  and  loveliness, 

and  then  first  understood  what  a  salaam  might  be Alas 

that  he  should  sink  beneath  the  cold  English  clime,  far  from  his 
genial  home  !  * 

'^  Perhaps  I  am  mistaken,  but  it  seems  to  me  one  of  the  hardest 


EXTRACTS   FROM  LETTERS.  885 

things  for  you,  in  New  England,  to  realize  the  winning  kindliness 
that  beams  on  you  with  a  perfect  fascination  from  the  smile  of  the 
high-caste  or  of  the  more  refined  among  the  Bengalese.     I  never 
saw  anything  like  it,  even  among  the  children  of  our  American  In- 
dians, though  I  have  studied  their  faces  many  a  time,  at  Oldtown 
among  the  Penobscots,  and  the  Indians  about  Toronto  and  Niag- 
aia  Falls,  the  Oneidas  in  Central  New  York,  and  the  Cherokees 
and  others  in  and  about  Mobile.     You  feel  that  there  must  be  a 
Hjground  for  Gospel  love,  in  hearts  that  look  put  of  those  eyes.    I 
do  not  feel  this  magnetizing  affection  ateness  in  all  or  even  in  a 
majority  of  cases  ;  but  I  find  it  in  sufficiently  numerous  exceptions 
to  assure  me  that  it  can  be  developed  in  all  in  due  time, 
t      ''  Hear  how  Lord  Canning  addresses  the  Bengalese  (in  yesterday 
morning's  Englishman),  in  reply  to  an  *■  Address  '  lately  present- 
ed to  him  in  deprecation  of  the  rebellion  by  some  ^ve  thousand  of 
them.    Lord  Canning  is  set  in  the  focus  of  too  stern  a  criticism  to 
allow  himself  to  address  words  of  mere  flattery  to  the  natives, 
especially  at  this  eventful  period.    But  hear  how  he  speaks  of 
them  and  to  them.    He  says :  '  You  present  me  '  (with  this  Ad- 
dzess)  *  the  names  of  men  of  ancient  lineage,  of  vast  landed  pos- 
^aesaicns,  and  of  great  wealth ;  men  of  cultivated  intelligence,  who 
have  been  foremost  in  measures  of  beneficence,  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  education,  and  in  works  of  material  public  improvement ; 
men  whose  influence  with  their  fellow-countrymen  is  deservedly 
great,'  &c.    For  the  sake  of  any  among  you  who  may  chance  to 
think  the  Bengalese  not  worth  saving,  pardon  me  a  word  more  : 
a  word  to  such  as  may  have  rested  for  a  time,  and  for  want  of 
better  information,  on  accounts  like  Macaulay^s  one-sided  descrip- 
tion of  them  as  mere  cheats  and  cowards ;  where  he  says,  as  you 
remember,  *  What  the  paw  is  to  the  tiger,  what  the  sting  is  to 
the  bee,  what  beauty,  according  to  the  old  Greek  song,  is  to 
woman,  deceit  is  to  the  Bengalee.'     '  Large  promises,  smooth 
excuses,  elaborate  tissues  of  circumstantial  falsehood,  chicanery, 
*  perjury,  forgery,  are  the  weapons,  offensive  and  defensive,  of  the 
people  of  the  Lower  Ganges.'     '  With  all  his  softness,  the  Ben- 
galee is  by  no  means  placable  in  his  enmities,  nor  prone  to  pity.' 
'  To  inevitable  evils  he  b  found  to  oppose  a  passive  fortitude,  such 

VOL.   V.   NO.   III.  33 


886  SXTSA0T8  FSOM  LSTTKBS. 

M  the  Stoics  attributed  to  their  ideal  sage ;  nor  does  he  lack  a 
certain  kind  of  coarage  which  is  often  lacking  in  his  masters.' 
'The  Bengalee,  who  would  see  his  country  OTerran,  his  house 
laid  in  ashes,  his  children  murdered  or  dishonored, .  without  hay- 
ing the  spirit  to  strike  one  blow,  has  yet  been  known  to  endure 
torture  with  the  firmness  of  Mucins,  and  to  mount  the  scafibid 
with  the  steady  step  and  eyeu  pulse  of  Algernon  Sydney.'    There 
is  much  truth  in  this  description,  if  you  allow  that  it  presents  but 
a  single  and  a  one-aided  yiew.    As  you  haye  located  your  only 
Asiatic  missionary  in  Bengal,  it  is  one  of  his  first  duties  to  give 
you  all  he  can  learn  of  Bengalee  character.    As  there  seems  to  be 
no  other  American  missionary  of  any  denomination  laboring  among 
these  thirty  millions  of  people,  you  will  naturally  expect  and 
demand  as  much  information  as  possible  of  the  sort  I  am  now 
giying  you.    It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  lay  Macaulay's  depre- 
ciatory picturing  between  the  paragraphs  that  I  quote  from  Lord 
Canning  *  in  Council.'    This  noble  yiceroy  proceeds : '  The  Gov- 
ernor-General in  Council  wishes  you '  —  men '  foremost  in  measures 
of  beneficence,  in  the  encouragement  of  education,  and  in  works 
of  material  public  improyement,'  &c.,  men  *  of  ancient  lineage, 
yast  possessions,  and  cultiyated  intelligence '  —  <  to  rest  assured 
that  the  goyernment  of  India  will  not  forget  that  if,  unhappily,  the 
mutineers  and  rebels  of  India  are  to  be  reckoned  by  thousands, 
the  peaceful  and  loyal  subjects  of  the  queen  in  India  are  numbered 
by  millions/    Let  me  also  add  the  closing  sentence  as  follows: 
<  The  course  of  the  goyernment  of  India  has  been  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be  simple  and  clear,  —  to  strike  down  resistance  without 
mercy ;  but  where  resistance  ends,  to  allow  deliberate  justice  to 
resume  its  sway, — justice  stern  and  inflexible,  but  patient  and  dis- 
criminating.' 

"  I  haye  left  myself  hardly  room  in  this  letter  to  remark 
upon  the  points  touched  in  your  letter.  A  natiye  gentleman 
known  to  not  a  few  in  Boston — one  to  whom,  on  leaving  for 
India  I  was  particularly  commended  by  our  brother  Charles  T. 
Brooks  of  Newport,  one  who  has  giyen  something  every  year  to 
our  Mission  funds,  and  whose  family  library  of  10,000  volumes  is 
one  exponent  of  his  interest  in  the  literature  and  thinking  of  the 


QUABTERLT  REPORT.  OF  HOME  MISSIONARY.         387 

West  —  has  undertaken  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  Takoor  Dass 
Roy  and  his  companion  from  Calcutta  to  Boston.  I  shall  not  come 
with  Takoor  Dass,  but  stay  and  work  on  while  health  and  oppor- 
tunity are  as  fair  as  now.  The  mail  is  closing.  So  God  be  with 
jTou.     Farewell." 


FOUETH  QUARTERLY  REPORT  OP  THE 
HOME  MISSIONARY. 

West  Bridgewater^  December  6,  1857.  This  church  is  at 
present  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev.  Ira  Bailey,  for- 
merly of  Meadville,  but  more  recently  of  Portsmouth,  R.  I. 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  my  young  friend  in  the 
morning,  whose  services  commanded  the  close  attention  of 
his  hearers.  The  weather,  unfavorable  in  the  aflemoon  and 
evening,  prevented  the  execution  of  my  missionary  plans. 

SatUh  Mlford,  Mass.^  December  13,  1857.  In  all  of  our 
small  towns  there  are  some  liberal  Christians  who  crave  re- 
ligious instruction  in  harmony  with  the  plain,  unquestionable 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament.  I  found  here  a  wel- 
come. The  place  of  worship  had  been  formerly  occupied 
by  Baptists.  They  becoming  unable  to  sustain  public  wor- 
ship, the  Unitarians  proposed  to  unite  with  as  many  as  would 
join  them  upon  a  more  liberal  mode  of  organization.  In 
furtherance  of  this  end  I  was  invited  to  lend  my  aid.  The 
chapel  was  well  attended  all  day  and  evening.  The  Sunday 
school  came  together  at  the  "  intermission."  Many  adults, 
by  their  presence,  encouraged  the  teachers  and  children  in 
the  services  of  the  hour.  There  were  forty  scholars  and  six 
teachers  present.  All  that  is  wanted  to  secure  ample  suc- 
cess to  our  cause  in  this  place  is  sufidcient  means,  and  a 
warm-hearted,  plain  Grospel  preacher. 


888         FOURTH  QUARTERLY  REPORT 

Lynn^  December  20,  1857.      Rer.  C.  C.  Shackford.— 
This  is  a  strong  parish,  under  the  direction  of  one  who  pos- 
sesses the  confidence  and  love  of  his  people.     The  church 
building,  especially  the  interior,  is  attractive.     The  Sunday 
school  is  accommodated  with  an  excellent  room  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  church.    I  preached  all  day,  and  before  the 
aflemoon  service  addressed  the  children.      A  future  time 
was  agreed  upon  to  receive  a  contribution  for  missionaiy 
purposes.     In  the  forenoon  I  presented  reasons  for  united 
efforts  in  behalf  of  a  wide  circulation  of  our  books.    At  the 
dose  of  my  remarks  Mr.  Shackford  sustained  the  views  I 
had  offered,  and  urged  upon  his  people  a  hearty  response  to 
the  call. 

Sharon^  January  3,  1858.  Bev.  C.  C.  SewalL  —  He  is 
not  a  resident  minister,  but  supplies  the  pulpit  on  Sundays. 
Considering  the  smallness  of  the  parish  and  its  limited  means, 
this  arrangement  is  for  the  present  the  best  The  people 
there  have  for  their  spiritual  guide  one  of  long  experience 
and  much  success  in  sacred  things.  At  the  evening  meeting 
I  expressed  my  belief  in  the  advantages  that  would  accrue 
to  the  parish  from  their  taking,  as  far  as  their  means  would 
permit,  the  religious  works  described  in  the  catalogues  of 
the  Association.     Many  volumes  were  disposed  of. 

Newton  Corner^  January  10,  1858.  Rev.  Edward  J. 
Young.  —  I  was  agreeably  surprised  at  the  largeness  of  the 
Sunday  school.  I  could  not  help  calling  to  mind  the  infancy 
of  the  Society,  its  smallness,  and  the  frequent  predictions  of 
its  failure.  For  many  years,  however,  it  remained  faith- 
ful in  the  observance  of  Christian  worship  in  a  small  hall, 
patiently  waiting  for  the  time  when  their  voices,  tuned  to 
the  melody,  "  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  hath  followed  us 


I 


OF  THE  HOME   MISSIONARY.  889 

all  the  days  of  our  lives,  and  we  will  dwell  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord  for  ever/'  would  be  chanted  in  thanksgiving  for 
their  new  Christian  home.  Rev.  Mr.  Young,  the  successor 
li  Rev.  J.  C.  Smith,  who  from  sickness  was  compelled  to 
leave  his  pastoral  care,  had  most  kindly  prepared  the  way 
br  my  visit  as  the  Home  Missionary  of  the  Association. 
Ailer  my  discourse  in  the  morning,  on  the  need  of  possess- 
ing valuable  books  of  a  devotional  character,  and  of  such  as 
oaight  create  a  taste  for  Christian  literature,  Mr.  Young  of- 
fered a  series  of  interesting  remarks  bearing  upon  the  same 
point.  The  future,  I  doubt  not,  will  give  proof  of  the  great 
uaterest  of  both  pastor  and  people  in  the  objects  which  the 
Association  have  commended  to  their  sympathy  and  aid. 

Chelsea,  JoBawary  17,  1858.  Rev.  Charles  B.  Thomas. 
—  It  has  been  observed  during  the  past  winter,  that  never 
before  has  the  attendance  at  the  churches  been  so  large. 
Without  doubt  the  disastrous  condition  of  the  commercial 
world  has  tended  somewhat  to  produce  this  result  Happy 
will  it  be  if  worldly  reverses  shall  reveal  the  way  to  secure 
that  prosperity  which  is  never  subject  to  the  disappointments 
that  have  left  so  many  sad  memorials.  This  day  and  even- 
ing have  been  thoroughly  occupied  in  religious  exercises,  at 
this  beautiful  church  of  our  faith.  I  presented  the  objects  I 
was  commissioned  tp  set  forth.  I  met  the  Sunday  school  at 
noon,  and  was  highly  gratified  with  the  signs  of  growth 
which  it  exhibited  in  all  good  learning.  Mr.  Thomas  aided 
me  in  everything  connected  with  my  mission.  His  address 
to  the  people  of  his  charge,  advocating  the  free  use  of  the 
Tolumes  issued  by  the  Association,  encouraged  me  to  in- 
creased faithfulness  and  zeal  in  the  good  work. 

Grafton,  January  31, 1858.    Vacant  — •  This  parish  has 

83* 


890       QUABTERLT  REPORT  OF  HOME  MI88IONABT. 

been  without  a  stated  minister  for  a  long  time.     The  people, 
however,  evince  a  commendable  degree  of  interest  and  de- 
dsion ;  and  although  weakened  by  a  most  disastrous  falling 
off  in  the  trade  of  the  town,  they  still  continue  steadfast  in 
their  religious  preferences.    It  has  been  veiy  cold  to-day, 
and  quite  difficult  to  keep  comfortable  in  the  church.    This 
doubtless  reduced  the  attendance  and  lessened  the  collection. 
The  ladies  kindly  responded  to  my  call  upon  them  for  aid  in 
the  distribution  of  our  religions  books  confided  to  their  care 
and  management 

Litdetany  Mass.y  February  14,  1858.  Bev.  Eugene  De 
Normandie.  —  Frequent  visits  to  .the  Unitarian  parish  in 
this  town,  whilst  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Bev.  Mr.  White, 
rendered  this  visit  more  like  a  return  to  old  friends,  than  a 
professional  meeting  with  strangers.  I  was  made  at  home 
wherever  I  went  Pastor  and  people  are  most  happily 
united.  Preached  all  day  upon  the  objects  connected  with 
my  mission.  Addressed  a  very  successful  Sunday-  school, 
and  in  the  evening  met  quite  a  company  of  the  friends  of 
that  institution,  who  wished  me  to  give  them  my  experience 
in  respect  to  the  best  methods  of  teaching  the  young. 

Medford,  February  28, 1858.  Rev.  Theodore  Tebbets.  — 
Spent  a  very  satisfactory  day,  having  met  an  attentive  com- 
pany of  worshippers,  whom  I  addressed  in  behalf  of  the  ob- 
jects connected  with  my  mission.  At  the  close  of  the  morn- 
ing service,  a  liberal  amount  was  contributed  in  aid  of  the 
Association.  At  the  close  of  the  afternoon  service  the  usual 
method  for  distributing  and  selling  the  books  was  adopted. 
Bev.  Mr.  Tebbets  most  freely  and  kindly  sustained  the  various 
propositions  which  I  offered.  I  was  much  pleased  with  the 
intelligence  received  from  several  persons,  that  «inder  Hr- 


OBITUABIES.  391 

Tebbets's  ministrj  the  congregations  have  very  much  in- 
ereased.  I  addressed  the  Sunday  school,  which  is  doing  ex- 
tremely well  under  the  care  of  its  yigilant  and  most  devoted 
Superintendent 


OBITUARIES. 

Hon.  Thomas  Kinnioutt  of  Worcester.  —  Among  sever- 
al eminent  Unitarian  Christians  who  have  been  removed  by 
death  during  the  last  three  months,  the  name  of  this  cour- 
teous gentleman,  and  upright  magistrate,  and  honored  citizen, 
must  not  Be  omitted.  Not  long  afler  his  graduation  from 
eoIl^jB  (Brown  University,  1822),  he  made  "Worcester  his 
liome ;  and  soon,  through  his  ability  and  character,  he  was 
called  to  fill  a  long  list  of  public  offices  of  high  trust.  How 
faithfully  he  met  all  these  responsibilities  we  need  not  here 
record.  It  is  for  us  to  allude  briefly  to  his  religious  position. 
Against  the  early  bias  of  education,  afler  careful  inquiry, 
and  from  profound  conviction.  Judge  Kinnicutt  was  a  Unita- 
rian. For  years  one  of  the  pillars  in  the  first  Unitarian 
Society  in  "Worcester,  long  will  there  be  remembered  the 
interest  he  felt  in  its  prosperity,  the  constancy  of  his  attend- 
ance upon  its  services,  the  extent  of  his  theological  reading, 
the  breadth  of  his  religious  culture,  and  the  sweet  Christian 
graces  that  marked  his  intercourse  with  all.  The  Unitarian 
interpretation  of  Christianity,  amid  many  defects  and  jshort- 
comings  over  which  we  mourn,  is  signalized  by  one  result 
that  has  often  been  noticed,  —  the  large  number  of  intelli- 
gent, devoted,  and  noble  laymen  it  has  trained  up;  and 
prominent  in  the  goodly  fellowship  of  these  will  stand  the 
name  of  this  Christian  gentleman.     Suddenly,  without  a  mo- 


894  "  OBiruABiBS. 

'of  the  beautiful  manner  in  which  she  exemplified  the  benef- 
icent spirit  of  the  religion  she  professed,  already  appeared 
in  the  papers  of  the  day.  She  was  the  daughter  of  the  Hon. 
Daniel  Davis,  formerly  Solicitor- General  of  this  State.  At 
the  age  of  seventeen  her  home  was  transferred  from  Port- 
land to  Boston,  and  she  attracted  much  attention  in  the  cir- 
cle of  brilliant  young  women  which  she  entered.  Marrying 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  she  presided  over  a  household  that 
was  distinguished  for  the  care,  diligence,  system,  good  taste, 
cheerfulness,  hospitality,  and  sacred  regard  for  the  happiness 
of  all  of  high  or  low  degree,  that  were  apparent  in  every  de- 
tail of  domestic  life.  She  diligently  cultivated  literary  tastes, 
and  was  the  writer  of  several  pleasing  and  useful  works,  of  sin- 
gular simplicity  and  clearness  of  style.  Through  life  she  man- 
ifested great  fondness  for  drawing,  in  which  art  she  attained 
much  skill,  which  she  made  tributary  to  the  happiness  of 
many.  Even  the  age  of  seventy  found  her  taking  lessons 
in  oil-painting.  But  neither  home  cares,  nor  love  c^  beauty, 
nor  literary  tastes,  nor  the  claims  of  social  life,  absorbed  all 
her  time.  The  poor  found  in  her  a  sympathizing  and  helping 
friend.  For  thirty  years  she  was  President  of  the  Bethesda 
Society,  and  for  a  long  time  was  also  President  of  the  Frank- 
lin Infant  School,  both  of  which  institutions  received  the  guid- 
ing impress  of  her  clear  and  strong  mind.  A  review  of  her 
active,  happy,  and  beneficent  life  —  as  has  been  well  said  — 
rebukes  those  who  are  "  impatient  of  what  they  consider  the 
narrow  sphere  of  their  sex,  and  shows  how  insensibly  the 
circle  of  female  influence  can  be  enlarged,  and  rendered  al- 
most indefinitely  useful,  by  a  wise  application  of  great  facul- 
ties to  the  duties  of  common  life."  A  sincere  Christian  faith, 
and  an  earnest  Christian  walk,  gave  peace  and  hope  to  the 
close,  and  now  shed  their  benediction  on  her  name  and 
memory.  She  died  January  21, 1858,  in  the  seventy^rst 
year  of  her  age. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  S95 

NOTICES   OF  BOOKS. 

The  City  of  the  Great  King,  or  Jerusalem  as  it  was,  as  it  is,  and  as 
it  is  to  be.  By  J.  T.  Barclay,  M.  D.  Philadelphia:  James 
Challen  and  Sons.     Royal  octavo,     pp.  621. 

A  RESIDENCE  of  ovei  three  years  in  Jerusalem  enabled  Dr.  Bar- 
clay to  make  the  most  thorough  exploration  and  admeasurement  of 
that  city  that  have  ever  been  undertaken.  It  would  be  difficult  V) 
name  any  point  interesting  to  the  Biblical  scholar  or  general  reader 
which  is  not  here  fully  treated ;  while  a  profusion  of  maps,  chromo- 
graphs,  lithographs,  and  wood  and  steel  engravings,  seem  to  place 
the  sacred  localities  with  as  much  distinctness  before  the  eye  as 
they  would  be  placed  by  a  personal  visit  to  the  holy  city.  We 
think  the  publishers  judged  wisely  in  getting  out  this  work  in  this 
admirable  style  of  paper  and  letter-press.  It  roust  delight  the 
eyes  of  all  lovers  of  beautiful  books.  By  the  family  circle  and  the 
Sunday  school  library,  as  a  present  to  a  teacher  and  a  gift  to  a 
pastor,  we  are  sure  this  work  will  be  eagerly  sought.  We  do  not 
know  the  other  way  in  which  for  three  dollars  and  a  half  so  large 
an  amount  of  instruction  and  entertainment  may  be  obtained.  The 
only  criticism  we  can  make  relates  to  the  author's  style,  which 
strikes  us  as  singularly  destitute  of  picturesque  power.  But,  after 
all,  we  are  not  sure  that  this  is  any  important  defect.  Facts  are 
what  we  look  for  in  a  book  like  this,  and  not  rhetoric.  It  is  some- 
thing to  feel  confident  that  you  are  not  deceived  by  rhetoric,  and 
are  not  in  the  hands  of  a  man  bent  upon  working  up  a  picture. 
The  reader  soon  catches  the  writer's  enthusiasm  for  ascertaining 
the  exact  facts  of  the  case,  and  is  often  left  to  wonder  that  about  a 
city  which  for  ages  has  been  an  object  of  the  world's  deep  inter- 
est, and  has  been  so  often  visited  and  described,  there  should  be 
so  many  new  facts  as  are  here  presented. 


Here  and  Hereafter,  or  the  Tujo  Altars.  By  Anna  Athern, 
Author  of  **  Step  by  Step,  or  Delia  Arlington."  Boston: 
Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.     1858. 

Those  who  enjoyed  the  gentle  wisdom  and  fireside  virtues  incul- 


896  NOTIOES  OF  BOOKB. 

cated  with  true  taste  and  marked  ability  in  the  first  book  of  this 
authoress,  have  been  eager,  before  this  late  notice,  to  secure  this 
second  fruit  of  her  skilful  pen.     Nor  have  they  been  disappointed. 
She  did  not  exhaust  her  resources  by  her  first  efibrt,  nor  has  she 
been  tempted,  through  any  false  ambition,  to  depart  from  the  style 
of  composition  in  which  she  first  won  success.     While  we  respect 
the  sense  and  character  here  indicated,  we  also  thank  her  for  this 
new  gift,  which  we  feel  sure  will  have  a  ministry  for  good  like 
that  of  its  elder  companion.    To  those  who  have  a  taste  for  start- 
ling incidents  and  highly  wrought  scenes,  the  pages  of  both  of  these 
works  may  seem  too  quiet  and  tame.     We  hope  she  will  continae 
to  write  for  that  better  taste  which  sees  that  flaring  colors  do  not 
imply  the  most  just  and  delicate  shading.    In  the  management  of 
dialogue  she  appears  to  have  the  skill  of  a  long-practised  writer, 
and  to  give  proof  of  a  power  reserved  for  some  greater  success  than 
she  has  yet  achieved. 

Athanasia:  or,  Foregkams  of  Immortality,  By  Edmund  H.  Seabs. 
Boston :  American  Unitarian  Association.     1858. 

As  three  editions  of  this  book — No.  Y.  of  the  Devotional  Library 
—  have  been  published,  its  character  and  merits  are  already  pretty 
well  understood.  We  believe  the  verdict  of  its  readers  to  be  that, 
while  there  are  views  of*  naturalism,*'  and  examples  of  exegesis, 
and  some  doctrines  of  the  spiritual  world,  which  do  not  conuneod 
themselves  to  universal  acceptance,  it  is  a  long  while  since  a  work 
has  been  published  so  fresh  and  quickening  as  this.  We  first  read 
it,  in  manuscript,  with  a  feeling  of  personal  gratitude  to  the  author 
for  the  satisfaction,  profit,  and  spiritual  joy  it  imparted.  Accoid* 
ingly  we  were  not  surprised  at  the  heartiness  of  welcome  accorded 
to  it ;  nay,  we  even  believe  that  the  book  is  in  advance  of  the  pres- 
ent appreciation  of  it,  and  will  receive  much  higher  praise  wheo 
its  real  aim  and  power  are  better  understood.  On  the  last  pagt 
of  the  cover  of  this  Journal  will  be  found  some  opinions  of  tbs 
press,  which,  perhaps,  to  the  reader  who  will  turn  to  them,  will 
seem  to  support  the  terms  of  praise  we  have  here  bestowed.  We 
cannot  close  our  notice  without  an  allusion  to  the  treatment  this 


NOTICES  OF  BOOKS.  397 

book  has  received  in  certain  quarters.  Reviewers  who  say  it "  does 
not  agree  with  our  theology,"  have  dismissed  it  at  once  with  this 
xemark,  to  which  has  been  added,  in  one  or  two  instances,  epithets 
of  ridicule  and  sneer.  We  are  sorry  for  this,  but  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  these  reviewers  themselves.  We  pity  those  who  are 
blind  to  the  truth  and  beauty  outside  of  '*  our  theology,"  in  which 
category,  as  we  fancy  in  the  case  here  meant,  is  a  large  part  of 
all  that  is  fair  and  lovely.  It  was  a  bigoted  Christian,  we  believe, 
and  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  a  Pagan  Omar,  who  destroyed 
the  famous  Alexandrian  library,  on  the  plea  that  all  that  repeated 
'*  our  theology  "  was  unnecessary,  and  all  that  conflicted  with  it 
was  pernicious.  When  we  have  read  some  sneers  at  this  book,  we 
have  thought  there  were  men  now,  who,  if  they  had  power,  would 
800Q  get  up  another  bonfire  on  the  same  charitable  and  magnani- 
mous ground.  Still  more  have  we  been  surprised  at  a  notice  of 
this  book  in  a  Swedenborgian  paper  published  in  New  York.  It 
seems  to  us  to  be  a  sad  departure  from  the  usual  gentle,  courteous, 
and  kindly  temper  of  our  **  New  Church ' '  friends.  Perceiving  that 
this  book  is  destined  to  leave  its  mark  upon  the  Christian  thought 
of  this  age,  the  writer  does  not  rejoice  in  the  thunder  that  is  to 
purify  our  mephitic  air,  but  demands,  in  ungentlemanly  and  coarse 
terms,  whose  thunder  it  is.  It  not  only  accuses  Mr.  Sears  of  pla- 
giarism, but  of  base  arts  to  conceal  the  fact  that  he  has  stolen  from 
Swedenborg.  Mr.  Sears's  reply  is  exactly  in  the  spirit  in  which 
all  who  know  the  man  would  expect ;  and  we  are  glad  that  he 
expressed  his  indebtedness,  first  of  all  and  chief  of  all,  to  one  to 
whom  80  many  of  us  are  under  deep  obligations,  —  John  Gorham 
Palfrey,  late  of  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School. 


Parihenia :  or,  The  Last  Days  of  Paganism.    By  Eliza  Buckmin- 
STKR  Les.    Boston :  Ticknor  and  Fields.     1858. 

This  story,  dedicated  to  Rev.  Dr.  G.  E.  Ellis  "  with  every  sen- 
timent of  respect  and  gratitude,"  reproduces  in  a  fresh  and  life- 
like narrative  the  times  of  Julian,  often  called  the  Apostate.  It  is 
thus  essentially  of  the  same  aim  as  the  "Julian,"  "Zenobia,"  and 
"Aurelian,"  of  the  late  William  Ware.    The  tale  is  one  of  sus- 

VOL.  V.  NO.  ni.  34 


898  NOTICES  OF  BOOKS. 

tained  interest,  and,  far  better  than  many  tomes  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, gives  valuable  information  concerning  the  opinions  and  strug- 
gles of  those  early  days.     The  accomplished  writer  has  given  too 
many  proofs  of  her  ability  to  leaTe  any  doabt  that  this  work  must 
be  one  of  scholarly  finish  and  power.     For  ourselves  we  will  ooly 
add,  that  in  reading  it  we  do  not  feel  that  attraction  to  the  charac- 
ter of  Julian  which  other  notices  of  his  life  have  created.    There 
are  few  historical  characters  that  have  interested  us  so  much  as 
one  to  whom  most  of  the  Church  historians,  and  the  popular  opin- 
ion of  the  ages,  have  done  signal  injustice. 


Christian  Days  and  Thoughtt,  By  Rev.  Ephraim  Feabodt,  D.D. 
Boston :  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.     1858. 

The  judicious  editor  of  this  beautiful  Tolume,  Rev.  J.  H.  Mori- 
son,  says  in  the  preface  that  Df.  Peabody  *'  loved  to  associate  par- 
ticular scenes  and  trains  of  thought  with  the  days  set  apart  for 
them  by  the  Church."  Following  an  intimation  given  by  Dr. 
Peabody  himself  during  his  last  sickness,  selections  from  his  writ- 
ings have  been  made,  relating  to  Advent^  Christmas^  Neio  Yearns, 
Lent,  Easter,  Good  Friday ,  Whitsunday,  All  Saints,  and  others. 
The  book  is  one  of  choice  paragraphs,  apt  illustrations,  devoat 
breathings ;  and  will  do  more,  perhaps,  than  would  any  more  elab- 
orate fruits  of  his  pen  to  endear  him  to  many  hearts.  Its  publica- 
tion in  our  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  may  do  something  to 
deepen  our  interest  in  these  feasts  and  festivals  of  the  Church,  a 
disesteem  of  which,  as  we  cannot  help  feeling,  has  been  attended 
by  a  serious  religious  loss. 


The  Poetical  Works  of  James  Russell  Lowell.  Complete  in 
two  volumes.     Boston :  Ticknor  and  Fields.     1858. 

Sketches  of  Art,  Literature,  and  Character,  By  Mrs.  Jameson. 
Boston  :  Ticknor  and  Fields.     1858. 

Both  of  the  above  works  are  published  in  the  azure  and  gold 
style  which  has  proved  so  popular.  They  have  been  chosen  by 
that  good  taste  which  selects  the  publications  of  this  house ;  and 
if,  in  the  desire  to  gather  up  all  the  works  of  the  first-named  writer, 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  399 

K  some  productions  of  his  pen  are  included  which  are  hardly  enti- 

i  iMi  to  a  place  in  this  collection,  the  fact  of  this  completeness  will 

s  oommend  the  edition  to  all  the  admirers  of  one  of  our  best  Amer- 

'  ican  poets.     Everything  we  have  read  of  Mrs.  Jameson  is  admira- 

■  ble,  not  only  her  appreciation  of  art,  but  her  true  womanly  nature, 

«-  bar  wide  sympathies,  her  excellent  sense.     We  hope  soon  to  see 

£  an  American  edition  of  her  "  Poetry  of  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art," 

■,  one  of  the  most  chfrming  books  in  our  language. 


Seven  Stormy  Sundays.    Boston :  American  Unitarian  Association. 
•  1858. 

This  is  Volume  VI.  of  the  DcTotional  Library,  a  new  boot  of 
which  we  have  already  given  some  account  on  another  page  in  this 
Joumal.  Its  table  of  contents  is  as  follows :  The  Rhododendrons, 
The  Sure  Wall,  The  Daily  Bread,  Forgiveness,  The  Children, 
The  Bible,  Pain.  A  note  which  the  author  prefixes  says :  ''I 
lia^e  to  thank  two  of  my  friends  for  the  use  of  two  sermons 
which  I  have  heard  them  preach,  and  which  would  not  be 
oth^wise  published.  I  must  express  my  acknowledgments, 
too,  for  two  sermons  by  Rev.  W.  B.  O.  Peabody,  never  before 
printed.  I  believe  the  sermons  of  Tholuck  and  Bretschneider  have 
not  been  translated  before."  The  idea  upon  which  this  book  is 
prepared,  to  furnish  a  series  of  fresh,  beautiful,  and  devout  relig- 
ions services  for  home  reading  on  stormy  Sundays,  is  one  which 
has  never  before,  we  believe,  been  carried  into  execution,  and  we 
are  sure  our  readers  will  find  this  a  pleasing  and  useful  book. 


What  am  I?  Whence  am  I J  Why  am  II  Whither  am  I  going  1 
What  are  my  wants 7  Who  will  give  me  aid^  Answered  in  an 
Address  to  the  Young,  By  Rev.  John  R.  Beard,  D.  D. 
For  sale  by  the  American  Unitarian  Association. 

These  are  great  questions  for  a  small  book.  Yet  Dr.  Beard 
has  compressed  a  large  amount  of  solid  instruction  into  a  hundred 
pages,  and  presents  the  most  serious  aspects  of  human  life,  duty, 
and  destiny,  in  a  way  to  conciliate  regard  from  philosophically 
sceptical  minds.    The  fault  of  the  book,  as  it  may  seem  to  some, 


400  NOTIOSS  OF  BOOKS. 

18  that  it  is  not  sufficiently  simple  in  style  and  treatment. .  Such 
persons  should  remember  that  the  class  of  young  men  for  whom  it 
is  prepared  like  to  grapple  with  difficulties,  and  are  quiclt  to  resect 
all  baby-talk. 

From  the  Messrs.  Harper  of  New  York  we  haye,  during  the 
last  quarter,  receiTed  the  following  works: — 

The  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century^  Vhutrated  toith  one  hundred 
and  thirty 'two  engravings,  drawn  by  eminent  Artists,  — one  of  the 
most  beautiful  giA-books  that  have  been  offered  to  the  public,  con- 
taining the  gems  which,  during  this  century,  hsTebeen  produced  by 
English  and  American  poets,  with  engravings  illustrative  of  scenes 
described  in  the  selections,  the  paper  and  binding  in  the  best  style 
of  the  book-maker's  art 

Missionary  Dravels  and  Researches  in  South  Africa,  including  a 
Sketch  of  Sixteen  Years^  Residence  in  the  Interior  of  Africa.  By  Da- 
vid Livingstone,  LL.  D.,  with  Portrait,  Maps,  and  numerous  lUus- 
trations.  This  work  is  full  of  interesting  anecdotes  of  travel  twice 
across  the  whole  continent  of  Africa,  and  gives  most  ample  infor- 
mation of  the  character  and  life  of  the  various  tribes  which  inhabit  it 
Africa  is  no  longer  the  terra  incognita.  The  fact  which  surprises 
us  most  is  the  degree  to  which  its  interior  inhabitants  are  already 
civilized.  Livingstone's  discoveries  shed  some  light  on  great  prob- 
lems which,  as  a  nation,  we  have  got  to  grapple  by  and  by;  and 
on  all  topics  on  which  he  treats  he  is  by  far  the  most  intelligent 
and  trustworthy  guide  accessible. 

The  Hasheesh-Eater ;  being  Passages  from  the  Life  of  a  Pythago- 
rean, —  informing  us  that  hasheesh  is  a  resinous  exudation  from 
the  hemp  plant,  which  in  northern  latitudes  grows  to  a  strong  fibre 
for  mats  and  cordage,  but  in  southern  climes  secretes  a  gum  of  a 
peculiar  stimulant  and  narcotic  power,  producing  phenomena, 
both  physical  and  spiritual,  more  remarkable  than  opium.  In 
reading  the  strange  revelations  of  one  who  says  that  he  has  eaten 
it,  we  have  sometimes  fancied  that  his  book  was  designed  only  to 
cast  a  hasheesh  spell  over  the  minds  of  his  readers ;  at  any  rate,  it 
has  been  fruitful  in  most  instructive  suggestions,  teaching  what 


NOTICES    OF  BOOKS.  401 

wonderfully  mysterious  phenomena  the  soul  is  sometimes  dis- 
tinctly conscious  of,  when  excited  beyond  its  familiar  and  normal 
action . 

Debit  and  Credit,  with  a  Preface  hy  Chevalier  Bun  sen,  — 
who  speaks  of  this  book  as  exhibiting  "  more  strikingly  than  any 
other  some  highly  important  social  facts  "  in  German  life,  and 
who  highly  praises  the  work  for  **  the  truth  and  impartiality  of 
its  pictures  of  reality,"  and  its  "  poetical  beauties."  We  have  not 
found  it  either  so  interesting  or  instructive  as  report  had  led  us  to 
expect. 

Of  attractive  and  instructive  children's  books  we  have  received 
the  following :  —  Stories  and  Legends  of  Travel  and  History,  by 
Grace  Greenwood,  —  who  conducts  the  delighted  reader  to  many 
an  interesting  spot  in  England  and  Ireland,  and  describes  in  her 
clear  and  charming  manner  the  historical  incidents  connected  with 
it;  Nannie^ s  Jewel- Case,  or  True  Stones  and  False,  translated 
from  the  Grerman ;  also.  Well  Begun  is  Half  Done,  likewise  trans- 
lated from  the  German.  Both  of  these  last  works  are  from  the 
house  of  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.,  are  illustrated  with  colored  en- 
gravings, and  wUI  be  prized  by  all  youthful  readers. 


*^*  Two  works  will  shortly  appear  from  the  press,  which  from 
the  ability  and  reputation  of  their  authors  will  be  sure  to  attract  no 
small  attention,  —  a  work  on  the  Four  Gospels,  by  Rev.  I.  Nich- 
ols, D.  D* ;  and  a  Plea  for  the  Unity  of  Church  and  Congregation, 
by  Rev.  Cyrus  A.  Bartol. 

*^*  We  have  received  The  Swedenborgian,  a  neat  bi-monthly 
periodical,  edited  by  our  esteemed  friend,  Rev.  B.  F.  Barrett,  and 
shall  gladly  reciprocate  his  request  to  exchange. 


34* 


402     BEOOBD  OP  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE. 


RECORD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL   INTEL- 
LIGENCE. 

December  2,  1857.  —  Mr.  S.  Farrington  was  ordained  pastor  of 
the  Unitarian  Society  in  Concord,  N.  H.  Sermon  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Bellows  of  New  York. 

December  24,  1857.  — Rev.  Solon  W.  Bush  was  installed  pas- 
tor of  the  First  Congregational  Society  in  Medfield,  Mass.  Ser- 
mon by  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale  of  Boston. 


December  30, 1857.  —  A  Unitarian  Society  was  this  day  formed 
in  Evansville,  Indiana. 

January  3,  1858.  —  Rev.  Dr.  Dewey  commenced  his  ministry 
as  pastor  of  the  New  South  Society  in  Boston.  The  sermon  was 
preached  by  Dr.  Dewey  himself,  the  other  exercises  were  shared 
by  Rev.  Drs.  Frothingham  and  Walker. 


January  10,  1858.  —  Rev.  Samuel  Clarke  completed  a  ministry 
of  twenty-five  years  as  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Society  in  Uxbridge, 
Mass.,  which  occasion  was  commemorated  by  a  discourse,  since 
published,  full  of  tender  recollections,  and  marked  by  Christian 
meekness  and  wisdom. 


February  7,  1858.  —  The  first  religious  service  was  held  this 
day  in  Stoneham,  Mass.,  with  reference  to  the  formation  of  a  Uni- 
tarian Society  in  that  town.  Sermons  were  preached  to  large  au- 
diences by  the  Secretary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association^ 
and  steps  have  since  been  taken  which  will  probably  secaret 
strong  and  self-sustaining  society. 


'<'( 


* 


*#*  A  few  clerical  changes,  besides  those  above  named,  haw 
occurred  during  the  last  quarter,  though  we  have  not  leaned  tlu«i  j 
precise  days  on  which  they  took  place.    Rev.  Mr.  McFarltf'liiie  c 


BBCOBD  OF  EVENTS  AKI>  GBKERAL  IKTELLiaSKCB.    408 

has  closed  his  ministry  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  in  consequence  of  the 
crippled  financial  condition  of  the  parish  in  that  place,  which  re- 
tains a  lively  remembrance  of  the  ability  and  faithfulness  of  its 
pastor.  Rev.  CD.  Bradlee  has  withdrawn  from  the  care  of  the 
Unitarian  Society  in  North  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  is  succeeded  by 
Rev.  J.  M.  Marsters.  Rev.  Loammi  G.  Ware  has  resigned  the 
charge  of  the  Unitarian  Society  in  Augusta,  Me.  Rev.  Robert 
Hassall  withdraws  from  the  First  Unitarian  Society  in  Haverhill, 
Mass.  Rev.  William  D.  Haley  has  accepted  a  call  from  the 
Unitarian  Society  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Rev.  N.  O.  Chaffee  has 
closed  his  ministry  at  Billerica,  and  is  succeeded  by  Rev.  N.  Da- 
mon, late  of  New  Market,  N.  H. 


*«*  We  have  occasionally  received  copies  of  sermons  preached 
in  San  Francisco,  California,  by  our  esteemed  brother  in  that  city, 
Rev.  R.  P.  Cutler.  The  last  received  discourse  from  his  pen  is 
entitled  Counsds  to  Young  Men ;  and  while  it  shows  how  care- 
fully he  has  surveyed  the  moral  exposures  and  perils  of  a  class 
iinosually  large  in  that  city,  it  proves  also  what  wise  Christian 
instruction  and  earnest  entreaty  he  gives  from  his  pulpit.  We 
profi^r  a  warm  fraternal  greeting,  and  an  expression  of  hearty 
thanks,  to  one  who,  solitary  and  alone,  is  successfully  bearing  up 
the  ark  in  that  distant  post. 


*«*  An  earnest  call  has  been  made  for  a  Unitarian  preacher  to 
go  to  Santa  Cruz,  California.  It  appears  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Unitarians  from  England  and  the  United  States  have  settled 
there ;  and  on  making  up,  recently,  an  estimate  of  their  numbers 
and  means,  much  surprise  was  felt  at  the  largeness  of  the  result. 
The  prospect  of  gathering  a  strong  society  is  better  than  that 
which  led  to  the  successful  attempt  in  San  Francisco,  and  all  that 
is  now  wanted  is  a  man  of  ability  and  faith. 


%•  We  gratefully  acknowledge  the  very  kind  manner  in  which 
our  Journal  has  been  alluded  to  in  two  periodicals  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic, — the  London  Inquirer  and  the  Belfast  Non- 


404    RBCOBD  OF  EYBNTS  AND  GENERAL  IKTBLLIGENCE. 

Subscriber;  the  former  of  which  speaks  of  the  Journal  as  '*  a  wel- 
come Yisitant  to  our  shores,"  and  the  latter  calls  it  <<  one  of  the 
most  interesting  periodicals  connected  with  the  Unitarian  hody." 
Through  this  partial  but  kindly  appreciation  of  our  labors  we  have 
been  encouraged  to  believe  that  some  hundred  copies  of  our  Journal 
will  be  subscribed  for  by  our  English  and  Irish  brethren.  Both 
of  the  periodicals  above  named  advertise  the  books  of  the  Associ- 
ation, and  through  the  agency  of  Rev.  Dr.  Beard  of  Manchester 
very  considerable  foreign  sales  of  the  same  are  efiected.  During 
the  last  quarter  we  have  sent  to  Dr.  Beard  fifteen  hundred  volumes, 
—  a  much  larger  demand  for  a  foreign  market  than  we  ever  ex- 
pected to  supply ;  and  this  may  be  but  the  beginning  of  an  inter- 
change of  literature  profitable  to  all  parties  concerned. 

*0*  As  the  next  anniversary  of  the  American  Unitarian  Associ- 
ation will  take  place  before  the  issue  of  another  number  of  this  pe- 
riodical, we  may  be  allowed  to  make  here  a  brief  allusion  to  that 
event.     It  will  take  place  on  Tuesday  forenoon,  May  25th,  proba- 
bly in  the  church  in  Bedford  Street,  Boston.     Some  complaint 
has  been  made  heretofore  of  a  want  of  careful  preparatory  arrange- 
ments securing  a  profitable  use  of  an  occasion  every  moment  of 
which,  it  has  been  said,  ''  is  worth  a  guinea."     While  there  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  preference  between  spontaneous  and 
premeditated  utterances,  we  feel  authorized  to  announce  that,  for 
the  coming  anniversary,  arrangements  will  be  made  for  a  succes- 
sion of  the  ablest  speeches  which  can  be  secured.     But  little  time 
will  be  taken  up  in  hearing  a  report  which  can  afterwards  be  read 
in  print  by  all  who  feel  any  interest  in  its  details,  and  the  precious 
moments  of  that  meeting  will  be  given  to  well-considered  words  of 
the  ablest  speakers,  on  topics  to  be  introduced  in  the  form  of  Re- 
solves.    We  hope  a  knowledge  of  these  facts  will  secure  an  early 
and  large  attendance  of  our  friends. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.  405 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

In  the  months  of  December,  January,  and  February,  the  follow- 
ig  sums  were  received: — 

December  1.     Quarterly  Journals,         .        .        .        •     $5.00 
"2.  u  *» 2.00 

"         .3.            "            «*        .         .         .         .         .  3.00 

"5.            "             " 1.00 

"7.             «*            " 10.00 

"         "  Books  sold  by  Rev.  S.  W.  Bush,       .         .  10.10 

"         8.  Quarterly  Journals,         .         .         .         .  4.00 

"10.             "             **            .....  1.00 

**      11.  Books  sold  by  Rev.  Samuel  Osgood,  D.  D.  3.15 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

14.  From  Mrs.  A.  Stone,  to  make  herself  a  life- 
member,      30.00 

"       14.  Quarterly  Journal,           .         .         .         .  1.00 

*'       15.            "             " 1.00 

"       16.             "             " 1.00 

"       17.            "             " 2.00 

*«       18.            "             ** 1.00 

*«       21.  From  Wm.  Wightman,  for  India  Mission,  10.00 

"        **  Quarterly  Journals,         ....  3.00 

**       23.  Books  sold  by  Rev.  A.  M.  Bridge,      .         .  3.00 

"       24.        "       "     in  Saco,  Me.,         .         .        .  6.17 

''       26.  Quarterly  Journals  in  Billerica,           .         .  12.00 

*«       28.  Quarterly  Journals,         ....  2.00 

«'       29.             "             ** 4.00 

«*       30.             "             ".....  1.00 

<<       31.  Books  sold  in  Salem,          ....  12.74 

<*        "  Quarterly  Journals,         ....  3.00 

*«        "  From  a  Friend,  for  India  Mission,      .         .  10.00 

<<        <<  Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  December,         .    128.75 


/ 


406  ACKNOWLEDaMENTS. 

January    1.    Quarterly  Journals,    ....         $  5.00 

**  "         in  West  Cambridge,         4.00 

From  Mrs.  M.  Cutler,        .         .        .        •    1.00 

Semiannual  interest  of  Graham  Fund,      .    152.25 

Books  sold  by  Miss  Anderson,    .        .        .   5.00 

"       ♦*    in  Beverly,   ....       3.00 

Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

<*  «< 4.00 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  T.  H.  Dorr,         .        .    8.68 
From  Society  in  West  Roxbnry,     .        .      23.66 

Quarterly  Journals, 4.00 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  W.  H.  Cud  worth,     .      18.75 

"  "      Rev.  Edward  J.  Young,        •    4.69 

From  Auxiliary  Society  in  Waltham,      .      72.00 

Quarterly  Journals, 3.00 

Books  sold  at  office,       ....      28.50 

Quarterly  Journals, 5.00 

From  E.  B.  Knowlton,  .        .        .        1.00 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  Cyrus  Cleveland,  towards  Life-mem- 
bership,   5.00 

Books  sold  in  Providence,  R.  I.,     .         .        2.05 

Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

it  tt  2.00 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  W.  H.  Cudworth,         .    7.50 
From  Mrs.  W.  O.  Fay,  towards  Life-mem- 
bership,     6.00 

Quarterly  Journals,  ....  4.00 
From  Ladies'  Auxiliary  Society,  Marblehead,  20.00 
From  Society  in  Walpole,  N.  H.,  .  .  25.00 
Quarterly  Journals,  ;  .  .  .  .2.00 
it  u  4.00 

»<  "  1.00 

From  Society  in  West  Roxbury,  in  addition,  1,00 

"       "      Books  sold  in  Taunton,      .         .         .        .8.00 

18.     Quarterly  Journal,  ...         .1.00 


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.  407 

Semiannual  interest  of  Graham  Fund,       .  $  107.75 
From  a  Friend,  for  India  and  Kansas  Mis- 
sions,   80.00 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"  ** 2.00 

*«  " 2.00 

Books  sold  by  Phillips,  Sampson,  &  Co.,       14.25 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

"  " 1.00 

Books  sold  by  Brown,  Taggard,  &  Chase,      33.82 
"  "      Rev.  Seth  Chandler,  .         1.10 

From  Ladies  of  his  Society,  to  make  Rev. 

Edward  J.  Young  a  Life-member,        .       30.00 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  H.  L.  Warner,  final  payment  on  Life- 
membership,  10.00 

Quarterly  Journal,  .         .        .         .        2.00 

**  ** 1.00 

"  ** 3.00 

Books  sold  in  Sharon,  Mass.,      .         .         .14.71 

From  Auxiliary  Society  in  Templeton,  Mass.,  60.00 

Books  sold  by  Crosby,  Nichols,  &  Co.,         157.46 

**        "in  January,  at  Rooms,    .         .      74.02 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

From  Society  in  Grafton,         .         .         .         7.07 

Quarterly  Journals, 4.00 

"  *' 1.00 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  George  Osgood,    .        .     7.41 
Quarterly  Journals,         .         .         .         .        4.00 

"  " 2.00 

Books  sold  in  Sharon,  Mass.,  .         .         1.40 

Quarterly  Journals, 2.00 

Books  sold  in  Scituate,  .         .         .         .        4.40 

Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

**  ** 4.00 

From  Society  in  West  Bridgewater,  in  addition,  7.25 
Quarterly  Journals,         .        .         .  4.00 


408  AOKKOWLEDaMENTB. 

February  14.  Books  sold  in  Providence,           .        .         t\M 

'*  From  Society  in  Littleton,  Mass.,    .        .     16.71 

15.     Quarterly  Journal, 1.00 

18.  *«  " S.00 

22.  Quarterly  Journals  in  Leicester,  Mass.,  .  liOO 
<'  Books  sold  by  A.  Hutchinson,        •        .     ISJM) 

23.  Quarterly  Journals, 4.00 

24.  Books  sold  by  Whittemore,  Niles,  &  Hall,  1S.70 
''  From  ''  Fulano,"  for  India  Mission,  .  .  lOJiO 
«'  <*  First  Cong.  Society,  Burlington,  Tt,  SUM) 
*«  "  Society  in  Peterboro',  N.  H,  .  .  33^ 
<*  Quarterly  Journals  in  Sjrracnse,  N.  T.,    •     36JI0 

27.  Books  sold  in  Channing  Society,  Newton 

Corner, 183iB  ; 

<*       <*  Books  sold  at  Rooms,  in  February,     .        .'teJ^ 


i  foUowing  warics  art  for  «ls  at  the  Soauk  i 

AmcrivAn  17ailMii«a  AMoci«iJgn,  21  llminSuM  Stnet 
iraels  oftlus  A.  U.  A.  OOmphltc.     36  Tblft 
'--:>  Works.    S  toU.     . 

' '  Mciuulnh    &  vuIa.       . 
-  Mn.  Vfute.    A.  U.  A.  EdUJiML 
-■im^uih  Ujittire.     By  l>r.  UoanL 
f  iiiili  null  Doty,    ^rmwm  \ij  J.  J.  Tiiyli-r 

i:iiot'x  DudriuiU  Lectitro^     tStta  Hxiiuati't 

Till!  Ijiti^  anil  till?  Cn^a*.      . 

r:iirly  tktj.    'i-i  EtUdon. 

Ware's  ClUrisUaa  Clumwlvr. 

I'iuuimng'e  TltimghtK.     Sulpptudbf  it.  A.Mila& 

MllMu'a  CuiUiriwi  Prini»iil>:«  cimlimuid.     9j! 

.V'MTioa'ii  rJUtlfoniMLl  ct  Boonum 

fhuuliigical  Ewn;*.     Knjrs'i  Conn^D.     8d  lOditJim.  ' 
The  B.k!  &t)i]  Uu!  Blaff.     2d  EdiUoit.    . 
ChrifliMi  tktciiioc  of  Ihajer,    Hj  J,  V.  CMte. 

"^■-«ii  Sturm;  SnndaTK. 

ii'hUs  Spws.     Dy  >.  WiHveslcr.      .... 
liuatviXtUTtUiv^    ByH.A.Hi]c4.    MTbvuaiuid. 
Nortoii'f  GcnniDcrKsa  of  th»  tioHp-iU.    8  voU. 
Aiiiwuisiiv,  nr  Foiv^l<<iunc  of  JnimortivUlx. 
S'>niiiine  on  the  CliriMian  Body.     Bf  C.  A.  Baftol 
Tiraiiu  nt'tinU.     From  C  A.  llorloL        .         ,         4 
i'lM  AlUr  m  Iliitne.    ilh  Editiuo. 

tnniiig.    Suki-t  VolDini- 

iriBry  of  Uie  Crtxct.     B;  Wsl  B.  Algcr.   . 
in-«tioDS  on  Ibo  BibK       ..... 
k!Ti«ioa  of  Uie  Kngiuli  Bililr-    Bjr  Dr.  IlearU.    , 
The  Diftcijtliu)  of  Sorrow.     Ilj  Dr.  Etiat.    Ai  KditUm. 
SiiBdity>8i'iiixi1  Litur^.    S<1  Rdiiioii. 
IVwtilt-'it  BiWu  TOi-ilouivn'.    By  Dr.  Bcanl,    S  vals. 
(iraiiniU  nod  Ot'jccta  of  Ruligiuut  Kntmlvri^.    2  vols. 
TllmirutiiMi*  [•rUio'IViidiy. 


(iUABTERLY  JOURNAI 


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Rrrrs  P.  Stehdins,  D.D.,  )      . 
Ilnx.  IIkmiv  I*.  Ko<;krs,  ) 

Rkv.  IIkniiy  a.  Milks,  I>.P.,  Sturclart/. 
(\vLVix  W.  Clark,  Esi,».,  TrvtL^Hrer, 
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r 


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f 

I- 

1 


THE 


'f. 


QUARTERLY    JOURNAL. 


<!^ 


f  Vol..  V.  BOSTON,  JULY  1,  1858.  No.  4. 


THE  PERSIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE  : 

ITS    CONNECTION   WITH   JUDAISM   AND 

CHRISTIANITY. 

The  name  of  Zoroaster  is  connected,  either  as  author  or 
h  as  reviser,  with  that  remarkable  system  of  rites  and  doc- 
h~  tiines  which  constituted  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Iranians, 
F  mud  which  yet  finds  adherents  in  the  Ghebers  of  Persia 
and  the  Parsees  of  India.  Pliny,  following  the  affirmation 
I  of  Aristotle,  asserts  that  he  flourished  six  thousand  years 
I  before  Plato.  Moyle,  Gibbon,  Volney,  Rhode,  concur  in 
throwing  him  back  into  this  vast  antiquity.  Foucher,  Holty, 
Heeren,  Tychsen,  Guizot,  assign  his  birth  to  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century  before  Christ.  Hyde,  Prideaux,  Du 
Perron,  Kleuker,  Herder,  Klaproth,  and  others,  bring  him 
down  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  later.  Meanwhile 
several  weighty  names  press  the  scale  in  favor  of  the  hy- 
.poibesis  of  several  2k)roasters,  living  at  separate  epochs. 
So  the  learned  men  differ,  and  the  genuine  date  in  question 
cannot,  at  present  at  least,  be  decided.  It  is  comparatively 
VOL.  V.  NO.  rv.  35 


r 


410      THE  PERSIAN   DOCTBINB   OF  A  FUTURE   LIFE. 

certain  that,  if  he  was  the  author  of  the  work  attributed  to 
him,  he  must  have  flourished  as  earlj  as  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ     The  probabilities  seem,  upon  the  whole,  that 
he  lived  four  or  five  centuries  earlier  than  that  even,  —  as 
Spiegel  says,  "  in  the  pre-historic  time."     However,  the  set- 
tlement of  the  age  of  Zoroaster  is  not  a  necessary  condition 
of  discovering  the  era  when  the  religion  commonly  traced 
to  him  was  in  full  prevalence  as  the  established  faith  of  the 
Persian  empire.     The  latter  may  be  conclusively  fixed  with- 
out clearing  up  the  former.     And  it  is  known,  beyond  dispu- 
tation, that  that  religion  —  whether  it  was  primarily  Per- 
sian, Median,  Assyrian,  or  Chaldean  —  was  flourishing  at 
Babylon,  in  the  maturity  of  its  power,  in  the  time  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  Ezekiel,  Jeremiah,  and  Daniel,  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  ago. 

The  celebrated  work  on  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Medes 
and  Persians,  by  Dr.  Hyde,  published  in  1700,  must  be  fol- 
lowed with  much  caution,  and  be  taken  with  many  qualifica- 
tions.    The  author  was  biased  by  unsound  theories  of  the 
relation  of  the  Hebrew  theology  to  the  Persian ;  and  was, 
of  course,  ignorant  of  the  most  authoritative  ancient  docu- 
ments afterwards  brought  to  light.      His  work,  therefore, 
though  learned  and  valuable,  considering  the  time  when  it 
was  written,  is  vitiated  by  numerous  mistakes  and  defects. 
In  1762,  Anquetil  du  Perron,  returning  to  France  from  pro- 
tracted journeying  and  abode  in  the  East,  brought  home, 
among  the  fruits  of  his  researches,  manuscripts  purporting 
to  be  parts  of  the  old  Persian  Bible  composed  or  collected 
by  Zoroaster.     It  was  written  in  a  language  hitherto  un- 
known to  European  scholars,  —  one  of  the  primitive  dialects 
of  Persia.   This  work,  of  which  he  soon  published  a  French 
version  at  Paris,  was  entitled  by  him  the  "  Zend-Avesta." 
It  confirms  all  that  was  previously  known  of  the  Zoroastrian 


THE   PERSIAN   DOCTRINE    OF  A  FUTURE   LIFE.      411 

religion,  and,  bj  its  allusions,  statements,  and  implications, 
throws  great  additional  light  upon  the  subject. 

A  furious  controversy,  stimulated  by  personal  rivalries 
and  national  jealousy,  immediately  arose.  Du  Perron  was 
denounced  as  an  impostor  or  an  ignoramus,  and  his  publi- 
cation stigmatized  as  a  wretched  forgery  of  his  own,  or  a 
gross  imposition  palmed  upon  him  by  some  false  pundit. 
Sir  William  Jones  and  John  Richardson,  both  distinguished 
!English  Orientalists,  and  Meiners  in  Grermany,  were  the 
chief  impugners  of  the  document  in  hand.  Bichardson  ob- 
stinately went  beyond  his  data,  and  did  not  live  long  enough 
to  retract ;  but  Sir  William,  upon  an  increase  of  informa- 
tion, changed  his  views,  and  regretted  his  first  inconsiderate 
sseal  and  somewhat  mistaken  championship.  The  ablest  de- 
fender of  Anquetil  was  Kleuker,  who  translated  the  whole 
work  from  French  into  German,  adding  many  corrections, 
new  arguments,  and  researches  of  great  ability.  His  work 
was  printed  at  Riga  in  seven  quarto  volumes,  from  1777  to 
1783.  The  progress  and  results  of  the  whole  discussion  are 
well  enough  indicated  in  the  various  papers  which  the  sub- 
ject has  drawn  forth  in  the  volumes  of  the  "Asiatic  Re- 
searches," and  the  numbers  of  the  "Asiatic  Journal."  The 
conclusion  was,  that,  while  Du  Perron  had  indeed  betrayed 
partial  ignorance  and  crudity,  and  had  committed  some  glar- 
ing errors,  still,  there  was  not  the  least  ground  for  doubt 
that  his  asserted  discovery  was,  in  every  essential,  authenti- 
cally what  it  claimed  to  be.  It  is  a  sort  of  litany ;  a  collec- 
tion of  prayers,  and  of  sacred  dialogues  held  between 
Ormuzd  and  Zoroaster,  from  which  the  Persian  system  of 
theology  may  be  inferred  and  constructed  with  some  ap- 
proach to  completeness. 

The  assailants  of  the  genuineness  of  the  Zend-Avesta 
were  effectually  silenced  when,  some  thirty  years  later,  Pro- 


412      TH£   PERSIAN   DOCTRIKB  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 

feasor  Rask,  a  well-known  Danish  lingaist,  during  his  inqui- 
ries in  the  East,  found  other  copies  of  it,  and  gave  the  world 
such  information  and  proofs  as  could  not  he  suspected.  He, 
discovering  the  close  affinities  of  the  Zend  with  Sanscrit,  led 
the  way  to  the  most  brilliant  triumph  yet  achieved  by  com- 
parative philology.  Portions  of  the  work,  in  the  original 
character,  were  published  in  1829,  under  the  supervision  of 
Bumouf  at  Paris  and  of  Olshausen  at  Hamburg.  The 
question  of  the  genuineness  of  the  dialect  exhibited  in  these 
specimens,  once  so  fiercely  mooted,  has  been  discussed,  and 
definitely  settled  in  the  affirmative,  by  several  eminent 
scholars,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Bopp,  whose 
^  Comparative  Grammar  of  the  Sanscrit,  Zend,  Greek,  Latin, 
Lithuanian,  Gothic,  and  German  Languages,"  is  an  astonish- 
ing monument  of  erudition  and  toiL  It  is  the  conviction  of 
Major  Bawlinson  that  the  Zoroastrian  books  of  the  Parsees 
were  imported  to  Bombay  from  Persia  in  their  present 
state,  in  the  seventh  century  of  our  era ;  but  that  they  were 
written  at  least  twelve  centuries  earlier.* 

But  the  two  scholars  whose  opinions  upon  any  subject 
within  this  department  of  learning  are  now  the  most  author- 
itative, are  Professor  Spiegel  of  Erlangen,  and  Professor 
Westergaard  of  Copenhagen.  Their  investigations,  still  in 
progress,  made  with  all  the  aids  furnished  by  their  predeces- 
sors, and  also  with  the  advantage  of  newly-discovered  ma- 
terials and  processes,  are  of  course  to  be  relied  on  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  earlier,  and,  in  some  respects,  necessarily  cruder 
researches.  It  appears  that  the  proper  Zoroastrian  Scrip- 
tures —  namely,  the  Yasna,  the  Vispered,  the  Vendidad,  the 
Yashts,  the  Nyaish,  the  Afrigans,  the  Gahs,  the  Sirozah, 
and  a  few  other  fragments  —  were  composed  in  an  ancient 


*  Wilson's  Parsi  Religion  Unfolded,  p.  405. 


TH£  PERSIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  A   FUTtTRB  LIFE.      413 

Iranian  dialect,  which  may  —  as  Professor  W.  D.  Whitney 
SQggests  in  his  very  lucid  and  ahle  article  in  Vol.  Y.  of  the 
Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society  —  most  fitly  be 
called  the  Avestan  dialect.  No  other  book  in  this  dialect, 
-we  believe,  is  known  to  be  in  existence  now.  It  is  difficult 
to  say  when  these  documents  were  written ;  but  in  view 
<^  all  the  relevant  information  now  possessed,  including 
that  drawn  from  the  deciphered  cuneifolm  inscriptions,  the 
most  probable  date  is  about  a  thousand  years  before  Christ. 
Professor  E..  Roth  of  Tubingen — whose  authority  as  an  origi- 
nal investigator  is  perhaps  hardly  second  to  any  man's  — 
says  the  books  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith  were  written  a  con- 
siderable time  before  the  rise  of  the  Achaemenian  dynasty. 
He  is  convinced  that  the  whole  substantial  contents  of  the 
Zend-Avesta  are  many  centuries  older  than  the  Christian 
era.*  Professor  Max  Muller  of  Oxford  also  holds  the  same 
opinion.f  And  even  those  who  set  the  date  of  the  literary 
record  a  few  centuries  later,  as  Spiegel  does,  freely  admit  the 
great  antiquity  of  the  doctrines  and  usages  then  first  com- 
mitted to  manuscript.  In  the  fourth  century  before  Christ, 
Alexander  of  Macedon  overran  the  Persian  empire.  With 
the  new  rule  new  influences  prevailed,  and  the  old  national 
faith  and  ritual  fell  into  decay  and  neglect  Early  in  the 
third  century  of  the  Christian  era,  Ardeshir  overthrew  the 
Parthian  dominion  in  Persia,  and  established  the  Sassanian 
dynasty.  One  of  his  first  acts  was,  stimulated  doubtlessly 
by  the  surviving  Magi  and  the  old  piety  of  the  people,  to 
reinaugurate  the  ancient  religion.  A  fresh  zeal  of  loyalty 
broke  out,  and  all  the  prestige  and  vigor  of  the  long  sup- 

*  Ueber  die  Heiligen  Schriften  der  Arier.    Jahrbiicher  fur  Deutsche 
Theologie,  1857,  Band  U.  ss.  146,  147. 

t  Essay  on  the  Veda  and  the  Zend-Avesta,  p.  24.    Also  see  Bun- 
sen's  Christianity  and  Mankind,  Vol.  III.  p.  114. 

35* 


414      THK  PSB8IAK   DOCTBINB  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 

pressed  worship  were  restored.  The  Zoroastrian  Scriptures 
were  now  sought  for,  whether  in  manuscript  or  in  the  mem- 
ories of  the  priests.  It  seems  as  if  only  remnants  were 
found.  The  collection,  such  as  it  was,  was  in  the  Avestan 
dialect,  which  had  grown  partiaUj  obsolete  and  unintelligible. 
The  authorities  accordingly  had  a  translation  of  it  made  in 
the  speech  of  the  time,  Pehlevi.  This  translation  —  most 
of  which  has  readied  us  written  in  with  the  original,  sen- 
tence after  sentence — forms  the  real  Zend  language,  often 
confounded  by  the  literary  public  with  Ayestan.  The  trans- 
lation of  the  Avestan  books,  probably  made  under  these 
circumstances  as  early  as  A.  D.  850,  is  called  the  Huzv4- 
resch.  In  regard  to  some  of  these  particulars  there  are 
questions  still  under  investigation,  but  upon  which  it  is  not 
worth  our  while  to  pause  here.  For  example,  Spiegel  thinks 
the  Zend  identical  with  the  Pehlevi  of  the  fourth  century ; 
Westergaard  believes  it  entirely  distinct  from  Pehlevi,  and 
in  truth  only  a  disguised  mode  of  writing  Parsee,  the  oldest 
form  of  the  modem  Persian  language. 

The  source  from  which  the  fullest  and  clearest  knowledge 
of  the  Zoroastrian  faith,  as  it  is  now  held  by  the  Parsees,  is 
drawn,  is  the  Desatir  and  the  Bundehesh.  The  former 
work  is  the  unique  vestige  of  an  extinct  dialect  called  the 
Mahabadian,  accompanied  by  a  Persian  translation  and  com- 
mentary. It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  century  when  the 
Mahabadian  text  was  written ;  but  the  translation  into  Per- 
sian was,  most  probably,  made  in  the  seventh  century  of  the 
Christian  era.*  Spiegel,  in  1847,  says  there  can  be  do 
doubt  of  the  spuriousness  of  the  Desatir ;  but  he  gives  no 
reasons  for  the  statement,  and  we  do  not  know  that  it  is 


*  Baron  Von  Hammer  in  Heidelberger  Jahrbiicher  der  Literator, 
1823.  Ibid,  in  Journal  Asiatiqae,  Juillet,  1833.  Dabist^n,  Prelim- 
inary Discourse,  pp.  xix-lxv. 


THE   PERSIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  A  PUTURE   LIFE.      415 

based  on  any  other  arguments  than  those  which,  advanced 
by  De  Sacy,  were  refuted  by  Von  Hammer.  The  Bun- 
dehesh  is  in  the  Pehlevi  or  Zend  language,  and  was  written, 
as  is  thought,  about  the  seventh  century,  but  was  derived, 
it  is  claimed,  from  a  more  ancient  work.*  The  book  enti- 
tled "  Revelations  of  Ardai-Viraf,"  exists  in  Pehlevi  prob- 
ably of  the  fourth  century,  according  to  Troyer,t  and  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  originally  written  in  the  Avestan  tongue, 
though  this  is  extremely  doubtful.  It  gives  a  detailed  nar- 
rative of  the  scenery  of  heaven  and  hell,  as  seen  by  Ardai- 
"Viraf  during  a  visit  of  a  week,  which  his  soul  —  leaving  his 
body  for  that  length  of  time  —  paid  to  those  regions.  Many 
later  and  enlarged  versions  of  this  have  appeared.  One  of 
them,  dating  from  the  sixteenth  century,  was  translated  into 
English  by  T.  A.  Pope,  and  published  in  1816.  Sanscrit 
translations  of  several  of  the  before-named  writings  are  also 
in  existence.  And  several  other  comparatively  recent  works, 
scarcely  needing  mention  here,  although  considered  as  some- 
what authoritative  by  the  modem  followers  of  Zoroaster,  are 
to  be  found  in  Guzeratee,  the  present  dialect  of  the  Indian 
Parsees.  A  full  exposition  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  with 
satisfactory  proofs  of  its  antiquity  and  documentary  genuine- 
ness, is  presented  in  the  Preliminary  Discourse  and  Notes 
to  the  Dabistin.  This  curious  and  entertaining  work,  a 
fund  of  strange  and  valuable  lore,  is  an  historico-critical  view 
of  the  principal  religions  of  the  world,  especially  of  the  Ori- 
ental sects,  schools,  and  manners.  It  was  composed  in  Per- 
sian, apparently  by  Mohsan  Fani,  about  the  year  1645.  An 
English  translation,  with  elaborate  explanatory  matter,  by 
David  Shea  and  Anthony  Troyer,  was  published  at  London 
and  at  Paris  in  1843.  X 

*  Dabistan,  Vol.  I.  p.  226,  note.  t  Ibid.,  p.  285,  note. 

I  See  review  of  it  in  Asiatic  Journal,  1844,  pp.  582-595. 


416      THB  PBB8IAN  DOOTRIKB  OF  A  FUTUBB   LIFE. 

In  this  series  of  records  there  are  obscarities,  incongrui- 
ties, and  chasms,  as  might  naturally  be  anticipated,  admitting 
them  to  be  strictly  what  they  would  pass  for.     These  faults 
may  be  accounted  for  in  several  ways.     First,  in  a  mde 
stage  of  philosophical  culture,  incompleteness  of  thecnry,  in- 
consistent conceptions  in  different  parts  of  a  system,  are  not 
unusual,  but  are  rather  to  be  expected,  and  are  slow  to  be- 
come troublesome  to  its  adherents.     Secondly,  distinct  con- 
temporary thinkers  or  sects  may  give  expression  to  their 
various  views  in  literary  productions  of  the  same  date  and 
possessing  a  balanced  authority.    Or,  thirdly,  the  heteroge- 
neous conceptions  in  some  particulars  met  with  in  what 
claim  to  be  the  Magian  Scriptures,  may  be  a  result  of  the 
fact  that  the  collection  contains  writings  of  distinct  ages^ 
when  the  same  problems  had  been  differently  approached, 
and  had  given  birth  to  opposing  or  divergent  speculations. 
The  later  works  of  course  cannot  have  the  authority  of  the 
earlier,  in  deciding  questions  of  ancient  belief;  they  are  to 
be  taken  rather  as  commentaries,  interpreting  and  carrying 
out  in  detail  many  points  that  lie  only  in  obscure  hints  and 
allusions  in  the  primary  documents.     But  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that,  in  the  generic  germs  of  doctrine  and  custom,  in  the 
essential  outlines   of  substance,  in  rhetorical  imagery,  in 
practical  morals,  the  statements  of  all  these  books  are  alike; 
they  only  vary  in  subordinate  matters  and  in  degrees  of 
fulness. 

The  charge  has  repeatedly  been  urged,  that  the  mora 
recent  of  the  Parsee  Scriptures  —  the  Desatir  and  the  Bon- 
dehesh  —  are  spurious,  forged,  their  materials  drawn  fiom 
Christian  and  Mohammedan  sources.  No  evidence  of  value 
for  sustaining  such  assertions  has  been  adduced.  Under 
the  circumstances  scarcely  any  motive  for  such  an  impositioD 
appears.    In  view  of  the  whole  case,  the  reverse  supposition 


THB  PEBSIAN  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTUBE   LIFS.      417 

is  rather  to  be  credited.  In  the  first  place,  for  the  existence 
of  the  general  Zoroastrian  system  long  anterior  to  the  rise 
of  Chrisdanitj,  we  have  ample  evidence.  The  testimony  of 
the  classic  authors  —  to  say  nothing  of  the  known  antiquity 
of  the  language  in  which  the  system  is  preserved — is  de- 
monstrative on  this  point.  Secondly,  the  striking  agree- 
ment— in  regard  to  fundamental  doctrines,  pervading  spirit, 
and  ritual  forms  —  between  the  accounts  in  the  classics,  the 
Avestan  books,  the  later  writings  and  traditional  practice 
of  the  Parsees,  furnishes  powerful  presumption  that  the  re- 
ligion was  a  connected  development,  possessing  the  same 
essential  features  from  the  time  of  its  national  establishment. 
Thirdly,  we  have  unquestionable  proofs  that^  during  the  pe- 
riod from  the  Babylonish  captivity  to  the  advent  of  Christ, 
the  Jews  borrowed  and  adapted  a  great  deal  from  the  Per^ 
sian  theology,  but  no  proof  that  the  Persians  took  anything 
from  the  Jewish  theology.  This  is  abundantly  confessed  by 
all  such  scholars  as  Gesenius,  Rosenmiiller,  Stuart,  Liicke, 
De  Wette,  Neander ;  and  it  will  hardly  be  challenged  by 
any  one  who  has  investigated  the  subject.  But  the  Jewish 
theology  being  thus  impregnated  with  germs  from  the  Per- 
sian faith,  and  being  in  a  sense  the  historic  mother  of  Chris- 
tian theology,  it  is  fisur  more  reasonable,  in  seeking  the  ori- 
gin of  dogmas  common  to  Parsees  and  Christians,  to  trace 
them  through  the  Pharisees  to  Zoroaster,  than  to  imagine 
them  suddenly  foisted  upon  the  former  by  forgery  at  a  late 
period.  Fourthly,  it  is  notorious  that  Mohammed,  in  forming 
his  religion,  made  wholesale  draughts  upon  previously  ex- 
isting faiths,  that  their  adherents  might  more  readily  accept 
his  teachings,  finding  them  largely  in  unison  with  their  own. 
It  IS  altogether  more  likely,  aside  from  historic  evidence 
which  we  possess,  that  he  drew  from  the  tenets  and  imagery 
of  the  Ghebers,  than  that  they,  when  subdued  by  his  armies 


418      TSB  PERSIAN   DOOTRIHS  OF  A  FUTDSB  LIFS. 

and  persecuted  by  his  rule  from  their  native  land,  introduced 
new  doctrines  from  the  Koran  into  the  ancestral  creed  which 
thej  so  revered  that  neither  exile  nor  death  could  make 
them  abjure  it  For,  driven  by  those  fierce  proselytes,  the 
victorious  Arabs,  to  the  mountains  of  Kirman  and  to  the 
Indian  coast,  they  dung  with  unconquerable  tenacity  to 
their  religion,  still  scrupulously  practising  its  rites,  proudly 
mindful  of  the  time  when  every  village,  from  the  shore  of 
the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  outlet  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  had  its 
splendid  fire-temple, 

"And  Iran  like  a  sunflower  turned 
Where'er  the  eye  of  Mithra.  homed." 

We  therefore  see  no  reason  for  believing  that  important 
Christian  or  Mohammedan  ideas  have  been  interpolated  into 
the  old  Zoroastrian  religion.  The  influence  has  been  in  the 
other  direction.  Relying  then,  though  with  caution,  on 
what  Dr.  Edward  Roth  says,  that  ''the  certainty  of  our 
possessing  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  leading  ancient  doc- 
trines of  the  Persians  is  now  beyond  all  question,"  we  will 
try  to  exhibit  so  much  of  the  system  as  is  necessary  for  i^ 
preciating  its  doctrine  of  a  future  life. 

In  the  deep  background  of  the  Magian  theology  looms,  in 
mysterious  obscurity,  the  belief  in  an  infinite  first  principle, 
Zeruana  Akerana.  According  to  most  of  the  scholars  who 
have  investigated  it,  the  meaning  of  this  term  is  "Time 
without  Bounds,"  or  absolute  duration.  But  Bohlen  says  it 
signifies  the  "  Uncreated  Whole " ;  and  Schlegel  thinks  it 
denotes  the  "  Indivisible  One."  The  conception  seems  to 
have  been  to  the  people  mostly  an  unapplied  abstraction,  too 
vast  and  remote  to  become  prominent  in  their  speculation,  or 
influential  in  their  faith.  Spiegel,  indeed,  thinks  the  con- 
ception was  derived  from  Babylon,  and  added  to  the  system 
at  a  later  period  than  the  other  doctrines.     The  begimuog 


THE  PBBSIAN   DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTUBB   LIFE.      419 

of  vital  theology,  the  source  of  actual  ethics  to  the  Zoroas- 
iiians,  was  in  the  idea  of  the  two  antagonist  powers,  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman,  the  first  emanations  of  Zeruana,  who  divide 
between  them  in  unresting  strife  the  empire  of  the  universe. 
The  former  is  the  Principle  of  Good,  —  the  perfection  of 
intelligence,  beneficence,  and  light,  the  source  of  all  reflected 
excellence.  The  latter  is  the  Principle  of  Evil,  —  the  con- 
triver of  misery  and  death,  the  king  of  darkness,  the  instiga- 
tor of  all  wrong.  With  sublime  beauty  the  ancient  Persian 
said,  ^  Light  is  the  body  of  Ormuzd :  Darkness  is  the  body 
oi  Ahriman."  There  has  been  much  dispute  whether  the 
Persian  theology  grew  out  of  the  idea  of  an  essential  and 
eternal  dualism,  or  was  based  on  the  conception  of  a  partial 
and  temporary  battle;  in  other  words,  whether  Ahriman 
was  originally  and  necessarily  evil,  or  fell  from  a  divine 
estate.  In  the  fragmentary  documents  which  have  reached 
OS)  the  whole  subject  lies  in  confusion.  It  is  scarcely  possi- 
ble to  unravel  the  tangled  mesh.  Sometimes  it  seems  to  be 
taught  that  Ahriman  was  at  first  good,  —  an  angel  of  light 
who,  through  envy  of  his  great  compeer,  sank  from  his 
primal  purity,  darkened  into  hatred,  and  became  the  ran- 
corous enemy  of  truth  and  love.  At  other  times  he  appears 
to  be  considered  as  the  pure  primordial  essence  of  evil.  The 
various  views  may  have  prevailed  in  different  ages  or  in 
different  schools.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  we  hold  the 
opinion  that  the  real  Zoroastrian  idea  of  Ahriman  was  moral 
and  free,  not  physical  and  i&tal.  The  whole  basis  of  the 
universe  was  good ;  evil  was  an  after  perversion,  a  foreign 
interpolation,  a  battling  mixture.  First,  the  perfect  Zeru- 
ana was  once  all  in  all ;  Ahriman,  as  well  as  Ormuzd,  pro- 
ceeded from  him;  and  the  inference  that  he  was  pure 
-would  seem  to  belong  to  the  idea  of  his  origin.  Secondly, 
so  far  as  the  account  of  Satan  given  in  the  book  of  Job, 


420      THS  PERSIAN   DOGTRINS   OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 

perhaps  the  earliest  appearance  of  the  Persian  notion  in 
Jewish  literature,  warrants  any  inference  or  supposition  at 
all,  it  would  lead  to  the  image  of  one  who  was  originallj 
a  prince  in  heaven,  and  who  must  have  &llen  thence  to 
become  the  builder  and  potentate  of  helL  Thirdly,  that 
matter  is  not  an  essential  core  of  evil,  the  utter  antagonist 
of  spirit,  and  that  Ahriman  is  not  evil  by  an  intrinsic  neces- 
sity, will  appear  from  the  two  conceptions  lying  at  the  base 
and  crown  of  the  Persian  system ;  —  that  the  creation,  as  it 
first  came  from  the  hands  of  Ormuzd,  was  perfectly  good; 
and  that  finally  the  purified  material  world  shall  exist  again 
unstained  by  a  breath  of  evil,  Ahriman  himself  becoming 
like  Ormuzd.  He  is  not,  then,  aboriginal  and  indestructible 
evil  in  substance.  The  conflict  between  Ormuzd  and  him 
is  the  temporary  ethical  struggle  of  li^t  and  darkness,  not 
the  internecine  ontological  war  of  spirit  and  matter.  Roth 
says,  '<  Ahriman  was  originally  good,  his  fall  was  a  determi- 
nation of  his  will,  not  an  inherent  necessity  of  his  nature."* 
Whatever  other  conceptions  may  be  found,  whatever  incon- 
sistencies or  contradictions  to  this  may  appear,  still  we 
believe  the  genuine  Zoroastrian  view  was  such  as  we  have 
now  stated.  The  opposite  doctrine  arose  from  the  more 
abstruse  lucubrations  of  a  more  modern  time,  and  is  Mani- 
chsean,  not  Zoroastrian.    - 

Ormuzd  created  a  resplendent  and  happy  world.  Ahii- 
man  instantly  made  deformity,  impurity,  and  gloom,  in 
opposition  to  it.  All  beauty,  virtue,  harmony,  truth,  bleas- 
edness,  were  the  work  of  the  former.  All  ugliness,  vice, 
discord,  falsehood,  wretchedness,  belonged  to  the  latter. 
They  grappled  and  mixed  in  a  million  hostile  shapes.  This 
universal  battle  is  the  ground  of  ethics,  the  clarion-call  to 


^  Zoroastrischen  Glaabenslehre,  ss.  397,  398. 


THB  PEB8IAN  DOOTBDnS  OF  A  FUTUBE  UFE.      421 

marshal  out  the  hostile  hosts  of  good  and  ill ;  and  all  other 
war  is  but  a  result  and  a  symbol  of  it.  The  strife  thus 
indicated  between  a  Deity  and  a  Devil,  both  subordinate  to 
the  unmoved  Eternal,  was  the  Persian  solution  of  the 
fxroblem  of  evil ;  their  answer  to  the  staggering  question,  why 
pleasure  and  pain,  benevolence  and  malignity,  are  so  con- 
flictingly  mingled  in  the  works  of  nature  and  in  the  soul  of 
man.  In  the  long  struggle  that  ensued,  Ormuzd  created 
multitudes  of  co-operant  angels  to  assail  his  foe,  stocking 
the  dean  empire  of  Light  with  celestial  allies  of  his  holy 
banner,  who  hang  from  heaven  in  great  numbers,  ready  at 
the  prayer  of  the  righteous  man  to  hie  to  his  aid  and  work 
him  a  thousand-fold  good.  Ahriman,  likewise,  created  an 
equal  number  of  assistant  demons,  peopding  the  filthy  domain 
of  Darkness  with  counterbalancing  swarms  of  infernal  fol- 
lowers of  his  pirate  fiag,  who  lurk  at  the  summit  of  hell, 
watching  to  snatch  every  opportunity  to  ply  their  vocation 
of  sin  and  ruin.  There  are  such  hosts  of  these  invisible 
antagonists  sown  abroad,  and  incessantiy  active,  that  every 
atar  is  crowded  and  all  space  teems  with  them.  Each  man 
has  a  good  and  a  bad  angel,  a  ferver  and  a  dev,  who  are 
endeavoring  in  every  manner  to  acquire  control  over  his 
eonduct  and  to  get  possession  of  his  soul. 

The  Persians  curiously  personified  the  source  of  organic 
life  in  the  world  under  the  emblem  of  a  primeval  bulL  In 
this  symbolic  beast  were  packed  the  seeds  and  germs  of  all 
the  creatures  afterwards  to  people  the  earth.  Ahriman,  to 
min  the  creation  of  which  this  animal  was  the  life-medium, 
sought  to  kill  him.  He  set  upon  him  two  of  his  devs,  who 
are  called  ^  adepts  of  death."  They  stung  him  in  his  breast, 
and  plagued  him  until  he  died  of  rage.  But,  as  he  was 
dying,  from  his  right  shoulder  sprang  the  androgynal  Km- 
omorts,  who  was  the  stock-root  of  humanity.    His  body  was 

VOL.  V.  NO.  IV.  36 


428      THX  PXS8IA2V  DOCTRIHS  OF  A  FUTUBB  LIFE. 

made  from  fire,  air,  water,  and  earth,  to  which  Ormnzd 
added  an  immortal  soul,  and  bathed  him  with  an  elixir 
which  rendered  him  fair  and  glittering  as  a  jonth  of  fifteen, 
and  would  have  preserved  him  so  perenniallj  had  it  not  been 
for  the  assaults  of  the  Evil  One.*     Ahriman,  the  enemy  of 
all  life,  determined  to  slay  him,  and  at  last  accomplished  his 
object ;  but  as  Kaiomorts  foil,  from  his  seed,  through  the 
power  of  Ormuzd,  originated  Meschia  and  Meschiane,  male 
and  female,  the  first  human  pair,  from  whom  all  our  race 
have  descended.     Thej  would  never  have  died,  f  but  Ahri- 
man, in  the  guise  of  a  serpent,  seduced  them,  and  they  sinned 
and  felL    This  account  is  partly  drawn  from  that  later  trea- 
tise, the  Bundehesh,  whose  mythological  cosmogony  reminds 
us  of  the  Scandinavian  Ymer.     But  we  conceive  it  to  be 
strictly  reliable  as  a  representation  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith 
in  its  essential  doctrines;  for  the  earlier  documents,  the  . 
Yasna,  and  the  Yeshts,  and  the  Yendldad,  contain  the  same 
things  in  obscure  and  undeveloped  expressions.     They,  too, 
make  repeated  mention  of  the  mysterious  bull,  and  of  Kai- 
omorts. t     They  invariably  represent  death  as  resulting  from 
the  hostility  of  Ahriman.    The  earliest  Avestan  account  of 
the  earthly  condition  of  men  describes  them  as  living  in  a 
garden  which  Yima  or  Jemschid  had  enclosed  at  the  com- 
mand of  Ormuzd.  §     During  the  golden  age  of  his  reign  thej 
were  free  from  heat  and  cold,  sickness  and  death.     <^  In  the 
garden  which  Yima  made  they  led  a  most  beautiful  life,  and 
they  bore  none  of  the  marks  which  Ahriman  has  since  made 
upon  men."     But  Ahriman's  envy  and  hatred  knew  no  rest 

*  Eleuker's  Zend-Avesta,  Band  I.  Anhang  1,  s.  263. 

t  Ibid.,  Band  I.  s.  27. 

t  Yasna,  24th  Ha. 

§  Die  Sage  von  Dschemschid.  Von  Professor  R.  Both.  In  Zeit- 
schrift  der  Deatschen  Morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft,  Band  IV.  ss. 
417-431. 


THB  PERSIAN  DOOTRIKB  OF  A  FUTUSS  LIFE.      423 

UDtil  he  and  his  deys  had,  by  their  lies  and  wiles,  broken  into 
this  paradise,  betrayed  Yima  and  his  people  into  falsehood, 
and  so,  by  introducing  corruption  into  their  hearts,  put  an  end 
to  their  glorious  earthly  immortality.  This  yiew  is  set  forth 
in  the  opening  fargards  of  the  Yendidad ;  and  it  has  been 
clearly  illustrated,  in  an  elaborate  contribution  upon  the 
"Old  Iranian  Mythology,"  by  Professor  Westergaard.* 
I>eath,  like  all  other  evils,  was  an  after  effect,  thrust  into 
the  purely  good  creation  of  Ormuzd  by  the  cunning  malice 
o£  Ahriman.  The  Yendidad,  at  its  commencement,  recounts 
the  various  products  of  Ormuzd's  beneficent  power,  and 
adds  after  each  particular,  ^  Thereupon  Ahriman,  who  is  full 
of  death,  made  an  opposition  to  the  same." 

According  to  the  Zoroastrian  modes  of  thought,  what 
would  have  been  the  fate  of  man  had  Ahriman  not  existed 
or  not  interfered?  Plainly,  mankind  would  have  lived  on 
for  ever  in  innocence  and  joy.  They  would  have  been 
blessed  with  all  pladd  delights,  exempt  from  hate,  sickness, 
pain,  and  every  other  ill ;  and  when  the  earth  was  full  of 
thfiOi,  Ormuzd  would  have  taken  his  sinless  subjects  to  his 
own  native  realm  of  light  on  high.  But  when  they  forsook 
the  true  worship  and  service  of  Ormuzd,  idling  into  deceit 
and  defilement,  they  became  the  subjects  of  Ahriman ;  and 
he  would  inflict  on  them,  as  the  creatures  of  his  hated  rival, 
all  the  dreadful  burden  of  calamities  in  his  power,  dissolve 
the  masterly  workmanship  of  their  bodies  in  death,  and  then 
take  their  souls  as  prisoners  into  his  own  dark  abode.  "  Had 
Meschia  continued  to  bring  meet  praises,  it  would  have  hap- 
pened that  when  the  time  of  man,  created  pure,  had  come, 
his  soul,  created  pure  and  immortal,  would  immediately 
have  gone  to  the  seat  of  bliss.'*  f    "  Heaven  was  destined 


*  Weber's  Indisdie  Stadien,  Band  IIL  s.  411. 
t  Tesht  LXXXyn.    Elenker,  Band  IL  8.  211. 


424      THB  PSB8IAN  DOOTBINX  OF  ▲   FUTUBE  LIFE. 

for  man  upon  condition  that  he  was  humble  of  heart,  obe- 
dient to  the  law,  and  pure  in  thought^  word,  and  deed."  But 
^'  by  believing  the  lies  of  Ahriman  they  became  sinners,  and 
their  souls  must  remain  in  his  nether  kingdom  until  the 
resurrection  of  their  bodies."*  Ahriman's  triumph  thus 
culminates  in  the  death  of  man  and  that  banishment  of  the 
disembodied  soul  into  hell  which  takes  the  place  of  its  origi- 
nally intended  reception  into  heaven. 

The  law  of  Ormuzd,  revealed  through  Zoroaster,  furnishes 
to  all  who  faithfully  observe  it  in  purity  of  thought,  speech, 
and  action,  "  when  body  and  soul  have  separated,  attain- 
ment of  paradise  in  the  next  world,"  f  while  the  neglecters 
of  it  "will  pass  into  the  dwelling  of  the  dev8,"t  —  "after 
death  will  have  no  part  in  paradise,  but  will  occupy  the  place 
of  darkness  destined  for  the  wicked."  §  The  third  day  after 
death,  the  soul  advances  upon  "  the  way  created  by  Ormuzd 
for  good  and  bad,"  to  be  examined  as  to  its  conduct.  The 
pure  soul  passes  up  from  this  evanescent  world,  over  the 
bridge  Chinevad,  to  the  everlasting  world  of  Ormuzd,  and 
joyously  joins  the  blessed  angels.  The  sinful  soul  is  bound 
and  led  over  the  way  made  for  the  godless,  and  finds  his 
place  at  the  bottom  of  gloomy  hell.||  An  Avestan  frag- 
ment IT  and  the  Yiraf-Nameh  give  the  same  account,  onlj 
with  more  picturesque  fulness.  On  the  soaring  bridge  the 
soul  meets  Bashne-rast,  the  angel  of  justice,  who  tries  those 
that  present  themselves  before  him.  If  the  merits  prevail, 
a  figure  of  dazzling  substance,  radiating  glory  and  fragrance, 

*  Bundehesh,  Chap.  XV. 

t  Avesta  die  Heiligen  Schriften  der  Parsen.    Von  Dr.  F.  Spiegel 
Band  I.  s.  171. 

I  Ibid.,  8.  158.  §  Ibid.,  s.  127. 

II  Ibid.,  ss.  248  -  253.    Vendidad,  Fargard  XIX. 
IT  Kleoker,  Band  L  ss.  zzxi-xxxy. 


THB  PXB8IAK  DOCTBIKB   OF  ▲  FUTUBE  LIFX.      425 

advances  and  accosts  the  justified  soul,  saying :  ^  I  am  thj 
good  angel ;  I  was  pure  at  the  first,  but  thj  good  deeds  have 
made  me  purer  " ;  —  and  the  happy  one  is  straightway  led  to 
Paradise.  But  when  the  vices  outweigh  the  virtues,  a  dark 
and  frightful  image,  featured  with  ugliness  and  exhaling  a 
noiscxne  smell,  meets  the  condemned  soul,  and  cries :  ^  I  am 
tby  evil  spirit ;  bad  myself,  thy  crimes  have  made  me  worse." 
Then  the  culprit  staggers  on  his  uncertain  foothold,  is  hurled 
£pom  the  dizzy  causeway,  and  precipitated  into  the  gulf  which 
yawns  horribly  below.  A  sufficient  reason  for  believing 
these  last  details  no  late  and  foreign  interpolation,  is  that 
the  Yendidad  itself  contains  all  that  is  essential  in  them, — 
Garotman,  the  heaven  of  Ormuzd,  open  to  the  pure, — 
Dutsakh,  the  abode  of  devs,  ready  for  the  wicked,  —  Chin- 
evad,  the  bridge  of  ordeal,  upon  which  all  must  pass.* 

Some  authors  have  claimed  that  ancient  disciples  of  Zo- 
roaster believed  in  a  purifying,  intermediate  state  for  the 
dead.  Passages  stating  such  a  doctrine  are  found  in  the 
Teshts,  Sades,  and  in  later  Parsee  works.  But  whether  the 
translations  we  now  possess  of  these  passages  are  accurate, 
and  the  passages  themselves  authoritative  to  establish  the 
andent  prevalence  of  such  a  belief,  we  have  not  yet  the 
means  for  deciding.  There  was  a  yearly  solemnity,  called 
the  "  Festival  for  the  Dead,"  —  still  observed  by  the  Parsees, 
-—  held  at  the  season  when  it  was  thought  that  that  portion 
of  the  sinful  departed  who  had  ended  their  penance  were 
raised  from  Dutsakh  to  earth,  from  earth  to  Grarotman.  Du 
Perron  says  that  this  took  place  only  during  the  last  five 
days  of  the  year,  when  the  souls  of  all  deceased  sinners  who 
were  undergoing  punishment  had  permission  to  leave  their 
confinement  and  visit  their  relatives ;  after  which,  those  not 


*  Spiegel's  Yendidad,  ss.  207,  229,  233,  250. 
36* 


426      THB  PBB8IAN  DOOTBINS  OF  A  FUTUBB  LIFE. 

yet  parified  were  to  return,  bat  those  for  whom  a  sufficient 
atonement  had  been  offered  were  to  proceed  to  Paradise. 
For  proof  that  thb  doctrine  was  held,  reference  is  made  to 
the  following  passage,  with  others :  ^  During  these  five  days 
Ormuzd  empties  helL    The  imprisoned  souls  shall  be  ireed 
from  Ahriman's  plagues  when  they  pay  penance  and  are 
ashamed  of  their  sins;  and  they  shall  receive  a  heaveiily 
nature ;  the  meritorious  deeds  of  themselves  and  of  their 
families  cause  this  liberation ;  all  the  rest  must  return  to 
Dutsakh."  *     Rhode  thinks  this  was  a  part  of  the  old  Per- 
sian faith,  and  the  source  of  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of 
Purgatory,  t     But  whether  so  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  the 
Zoroastrians  regarded  the  whole  residence  of  the  departed 
souls  in  hell  as  temporary. 

The  duration  of  the  present  order  of  the  world  was  fixed 
at  twelve  thousand  years,  divided  into  four  equal  epochs. 
In  the  first  three  thousand  years,  Ormuzd  creates  and  reigns 
triumphantly  over  his  empire.  Through  the  next  cycle, 
Ahriman  is  calling  forth  and  carrying  on  his  hostile  works. 
The  third  epoch  is  occupied  with  a  drawn  battle  between 
the  upper  and  lower  kings  and  their  adherents.  During 
the  fourth  period,  Ahriman  is  to  be  victorious,  and  a  state  of 
things  inconceivably  dreadful  is  to  prevail.  The  brightness 
of  all  clear  things  will  be  shrouded,  the  happiness  of  all  joy- 
ful creatures  be  destroyed,  innocence  disappear,  religion  be 
scoffed  from  the  world,  and  crime,  horror,  and  war  be  ram- 
pant. Famine  will  spread,  pests  and  plagues  stalk  over  the 
earth,  and  showers  of  black  rain  fall.  But  at  last  Onnazd 
shall  rise  in  his  might  and  put  an  end  to  these  awful  scenes. 
He  will  send  on  earth  a  saviour,  Sosiosch,  to  deliver  man- 
kind, to  wind  up  the  final  period  of  time,  and  to  bring  the 

*  Kleuker's  Zend-Avesta,  Band  II.  s.  173. 
t  Hhode's  Heilige  Sage  des  Zendvolks,  s.  410. 


THE  PISBSIAN  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTUBE  LIFE.      427 

arch-enemj  to  judgment.  At  the  sonnd  of  the  voice  of 
Sosiosch  the  dead  will  come  forth.  Good,  bad,  indifiTerent, 
all  alike  will  rise,  each  in  his  order.  Kaiomorts,  the  origi- 
nal single  ancestor  of  men,  will  be  the  firstling.  Kext, 
Meschia  and  Meschiane,  the  primal  parent  pair,  will  appear. 
And  then  the  whole  multitudinous  family  of  mankind  will 
throng  up.  The  genii  of  the  elements  will  render  up  the 
sacred  materials  intrusted  to  them,  and  rebuild  the  decom- 
posed bodies.  Each  soul  will  recognize,  and  haste  to  re- 
oocapj,  its  old  tenement  of  flesh,  now  renewed,  improved, 
and  immortalized.  Former  acquaintances  will  then  know 
each  other.  ^  Behold,  mj  father  I  my  mother !  mj  brother ! 
my  wife !  —  they  shall  exclaim."  * 

In  this  exposition  we  have — fi>llowing  the  guidance  of 
Da  Perron,  Foucher,  Kleuker,  J.  G.  Miiller,  and  other  early 
acholars  in  this  field  —  attributed  the  doctrine  of  a  general 
and  bodily  resurrection  of  the  dead  to  the  ancient  Zoroas- 
Irians.  The  subsequent  researches  of  Bumouf,  Both,  and 
others,  have  shown  that  several,  at  least,  of  the  passages 
which  Anquetil  supposed  to  teach  such  a  doctrine,  were 
erroneously  translated  by  him,  and  do  not  really  contain  it 
And  recently  the  ground  has  been  ofiten  assumed  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  does  not  belong  to  the  Avesta^  but  is 
indeed  a  more  modem  dogma,  derived  by  the  Parsees  from 
the  Jews  or  the  Christians,  and  only  forced  upon  the  old 
text  by  misinterpretation  through  the  Pehlevi  version  and 
the  Parsee  commentary.  A  question  of  so  grave  impor- 
tance Remands  careful  examination.  In  the  absence  of 
that  reliable  translation  of  the  entire  original  documents, 
and  that  thorough  elaboration  of  all  the  extant  materials, 
which  we  are  awaiting  from  the  hands  of  Professor  Spiegel, 

*  Bondehesh,  Chap.  XXXI. 


428      THS  PSB8IAN  DOOTRIHB  OF  ▲  FUTUXB  LIVB. 

whose  second  ydame  has  kMig  been  dne,  and  Professor 
Westergaardy  whose  second  and  third  Tolomes  are  eagerly 
looked  for,  we  most  make  the  best  use  of  the  resources  actn- 
allj  available,  and  then  leave  the  point  in  sach  plausible 
light  as  existing  testimony  and  fiur  reasoning  can  throw 
upon  it 

In  the  first  place  it  should  be  observed,  that^  admitting  the 
doctrine  to  be  nowhere  mentioned  in  the  Avesta,  still  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  belief  was  not  prevalent  when  the  Avesta 
was  written.  We  know  that  the  Christians  of  the  first  two 
centuries  believed  a  great  manj  things  of  which  there  is  no 
statement  in  the  New  Testament  Spinel  holds  that  the 
doctrine  in  debate  is  not  in  the  Avesta,  the  text  of  which  in 
its  present  form  he  thinks  was  written  after  the  time  of 
Alexander.*  But  he  confesses  that  the  resurreeticHMheory 
was  alreadj  in  existence  before  that  timet  Now  if  the 
Avesta,  committed  to  writing  three  hundred  jears  before 
Christy  at  a  time  when  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  is 
known  to  have  been  believed,  yet  contains  no  reference  to 
it,  the  same  relation  of  facts  may  just  as  well  have  existed 
if  we  date  the  record  seven  centuries  earlier.  We  possess 
only  a  small  and  broken  portion  of  the  original  Zoroastrian 
Scriptures ;  as  Roth  says,  songs,  invocations,  prayers,  snatch- 
es of  traditions,  parts  of  a  code,  —  the  shattered  fragments 
of  a  once  stately  building.  If  we  could  recover  the  com- 
plete documents  in  their  earliest  condition,  it  might  appear 
that  the  now  lost  parts  contained  the  doctrine  of  the  general 
resurrection  fully  formed.  We  have  manj  explicit  refe^ 
ences  to  manj  ancient  Zoroastrian  books  no  longer  in  exist- 
ence.    For  example,  the  Parsees  have  a  very  early  account 


*  Studien  fiber  das  Zendavesta,  in  Zeitschrift  der  Dentschen  Mor- 
genlandischen  Gesellschaft.    1855.    Band  IX.  s.  192. 
t  Spiegel's  Avesta,  Band  I.  s.  16. 


I 


THE  PERSIAN  DOCTRINE   OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE.      429 

that  the  Avesta  at  first  consisted  of  twenty-one  Nosks.  Of 
these  but  one  has  been  preserved  complete,  and  small  parts 
of  three  or  four  others.  The  rest  are  utterly  wanting.  The 
'  fifth  Nosk,  whereof  not  any  portion  remains  to  us,  was  called 
the  Do-az-ah  Hamast.  It  contained  thirty-two  chapters, 
treating,  among  other  things,  ^'of  the  upper  and  nether 
world,  of  the  resurrection,  of  the  bridge  Chinevad,  and  of  the 
fiite  after  death."  *  If  this  evidence  be  true,  —  and  we  know 
of  no  reason  for  not  crediting  it,  —  it  is  perfectly  decisive. 
But  at  all  events,  the  absence  from  the  extant  parts  of  the 
Zend-Avesta  of  the  doctrine  under  examination,  is  no  proof 
that  the  doctrine  was  not  received  when  the  documents  were 
penned. 

Secondly,  we  have  the  unequivocal  assertion  of  Theopom- 
pus,  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  that  the  Magi 
taught  the  doctrine  of  a  general  resurrection,  f  ^At  the 
appointed  epoch  Ahriman  shall  be  subdued,"  and  ^'men 
shall  live  again  and  shall  be  inmiortal."  Aristotle  calls 
Ormuzd  Zeus,  and  Ahriman  Haldes,  the  Greek  names  re- 
spectively of  the  lord  of  the  starry  Olympians  above,  and 
the  monarch  of  the  Stygian  ghosts  beneath.  Another  form 
also  in  which  the  early  Greek  authors  betray  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Persian  conception  of  a  conflict  between  Or- 
muzd and  Ahriman  is  in  the  idea  —  expressed  by  Xenophon 
in  his  Gyropffidia,  in  the  dialogue  between  Araspes  and 
Cyrus — of  two  souls  in  man,  one  a  brilliant  efflux  of  good, 
the  other  a  dusky  emanation  of  evD,  each  bearing  the  like- 
ness of  its  parent.  %  Since  we  know  ftom  Theopompus  that 
certain  conceptions,  illustrated  in  the  Bundehesh  and  not 

*  Dabist^,  Vol.  I.  pp.  272-274. 

t  Diogenes  Laertios,  Liyes  of  the  Philosophers,  Introdaction,  §  YI. 
Plutarch,  concerning  Isis  and  Osiris. 
§  Idb.  YI.  Cap.  L  sect.  41. 


4S0      THE  PXBSIAN  DOGTRINB  OF  A  FUTUBS  LIFE. 

contained  in  the  fragmentarj  Ayestan  books  whidi  have 
reached  us,  were  actually  receiyed  2k>roastrian  tenets  four 
centuries  before  Christ,  we  are  stronglj  supported  in  giving 
credence  to  the  doctrinal  statements  of  that  book  as  afford- 
ing, in  spite  of  its  lateness,  a  correct  epit<»ne  of  the  old  Per- 
sian theology. 

Thirdly,  we  are  still  further  warranted  in  admittiDg  the 
antiquity  of  the  Zoroastrian  system  as  induding  the  resur- 
rection theory,  when  we  consider  the  internal  harmony  and 
organic  connection  of  parts  in  it ;  how  the  doctrines  all  fit 
together,  and  imply  each  other,  and  could  scarcely  luiye  ex- 
isted apart  Men  were  the  creatures  of  Ormuzd.  They 
should  haye  liyed  immortally  under  his  fayor  and  in  his 
realm.  But  Ahriman,  by  treachery,  got  possession  of  a 
large  portion  of  them.  Now  when,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
period  into  which  the  world-course  was  diyided  by  the  Ma- 
gian  theory,  as  Theopompus  testifies,  Ormuzd  oyercomes 
this  arch-adyersary,  will  he  not  rescue  his  own  unfortunate 
creatures  from  the  realm  of  darkness  in  which  they  have 
been  imprisoned  ?  When  a  king  storms  an  enemy's  castle, 
he  deliyers  from  the  dungeons  his  own  soldiers  who  were 
taken  captiyes  in  a  former  defeat.  The  expectation  oi  a 
great  prophet,  Sosiosch,  to  come  and  yanquish  Ahriman  and 
his  swarms,  unquestionably  appears  in  the  Ayesta  itself.* 
With  this  notion,  in  inseparable  union,  the  Parsee  tradition, 
running  continuously  back,  as  is  claimed,  to  a  yery  remote 
time,  joins  the  doctrine  of  a  general  resurrection ;  a  doctrine 
literally  stated  in  the  Yendidad,t  and  in  many  other  places 
in  the  Ayesta,  {  where  it  has  not  yet  been  shown  to  be  an 
interpolation,  but  only  supposed  so  by  yery  questionable 

*  Spiegel's  A  vesta,  Band  I.  ss.  16,  244. 

t  Fargard  XVIII.    Spiegel's  Uebersetzung,  s.  236. 

t  Kleuker,  Band  II.  ss.  123, 124, 164. 


THE  PSBSIAN  DOGTBIKE   OF  A  VUTUBE  LITE.      481 

oonstructive  inferences.  The  consent  of  intrinsic  adjust- 
ment and  of  historic  evidence  would,  therefore,  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  this  was  an  old  Zoroastrian  d<^ma.  In  dis- 
jpiTOof  of  this  conclusion  there  is  no  direct  positive  evidence 
whatever,  and  no  inferential  argument  o^nt  enough  to 
produce  conviction  in  us. 

.    There  are  sufficient  reasons  for  the  belief  that  the  doc- 
idne  of  a  resurrection  was  quite  early  adopted  from  the 
i?ersians  by  the  Jews,  not  borrowed  at  a  much  Is^r  time 
ikom  the  Jews  bj  the  Parsees.    The  conception  of  Ahri* 
man,  the  evil  serpent,  bearing  death  {die  Sddomge  Angnxr 
mudnyuSf  der  voU  Tod  ist)^  is  interwrought  from  the  first 
lluoughottt  the  Zoroastrian  scheme.    In  the  Hebrew  rec- 
ords, on  the  ccmtrarj,  such  an  idea  appears  but  incidentally, 
iMTiefly,  rarely,  and  only  in  the  later  books.    The  account  of 
&B  introduction  of  sin  and  death  by  the  serpent,  in  the  Grar- 
^kn  of  Eden,  dates  from  a  tune  subsequent  to  the  commence- 
of  the  Captivity.    Yon  Bc^len,  in  his  Introdnction  to 
Book  of  Geneds,  says  the  narrative  was  drawn  from  the 
Siend-Avesta.       Bosenmiiller,  in  his  commentary  on  the 
panage,  says  the  narrator  had  in  view  the  Zoroastrian  no- 
iaaoB  of  the  serpent  Ahriman  and  his  deeds.     Dr.  Martin 
Hang— an  acute  and  learned  writer,  whose  opinion  is  en- 
tiiled  to  great  weight,  as  he  is  the  freshest  scholar  acquainted 
wi&  this  whole  field  in  the  light  of  all  that  others  have 
dooe  —thinks  it  certain  that  Zoroaster  lived  in  a  gray  an- 
tiqidty,  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  years  before 
.Christ  He  says  that  Judaism  after  the  exile  —  and  through 
Judaism  Christianity  afterwards  — ^  received  an  important 
anfiuence  from  Zoroastrianism ;  an  influence  which,  in  regard 
to  the  doctrine  of  angels,  Satan,  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  cannot  be  mistaken.  *     The  Hebrew  theology  had  no 

*  Die   Lehre   Zoroasters   nach   den   alten   Lledem   des   Zend- 


i8S      THX  PXBSIAN  DOOTfilVB  Or  A  VUTUBX  LIVE. 

demonolpgy,  no  Satan,  ontil  after  the  residence  at  Babylon. 
This  is  admitted.  Well,  is  not  the  resurrection  a  pendant 
to  the  doctrine  of  Satan  ?  Without  the  idea  of  a  Satan  there 
would  be  no  idea  of  a  retribntiye  banishment  of  souls  into 
hell,  and  of  course  no  occasion  for  a  vindicating  restorati(m 
of  them  thence  to  their  former  of  a  superior  state. 

In  this  point  the  theory  of  Bawlinson  is  very  impcnrtant. 
He  argues,  with  various  proofe  and  great  oogencj,  that  the 
Dualistic  doctrine  was  a  heresy  which  broke  out  very  early 
among  the  primitive  Aryans,  who  then  were  the  single  an- 
cestry of  the  subsequent  Iranians  and  Indians.    This  heresy 
was  forcibly  suppressed.    Its  adherents,  driven  out  of  India, 
went  to  Persia,  and,  after  severe  conflicts  and  final  adnoix- 
ture  with  the  Magians,  there  established  their  faith.*    The 
sole  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  teaching  the  resurrec- 
tion, is  in  the  so-called  book  of  Daniel, — a  book  full  of 
Chaldean  and  Persian  allusions,  written  less  than  two  cen- 
turies before  Christ,  long  after  we  know  it  was  a  received 
Zoroastrian  tenet,  and  long  after  the  Hebrews  had  been  ex- 
posed to  the  whole  tide  and  atmosphere  of  the  triumphant 
Persian  power.    The  unchangeable  tenacity  of  the  Modes 
and  Persians  is  a  proverb.     How  often  the  Hebrew  people 
lapsed  into  idolatry,  accepting  Pagan  gods,  doctrines,  and  rit- 
ual, is  notorious.    And  in  particular,  how  completely  subject 
they  were  to  Persian  influence  appears  clearly  in  large  parts 
of  the  Biblical  history,  and  particularly  in  the  books  of  Esther 
and  Ezekiel.    The  origin  of  the  term  Beelzebub,  too,  in  tbe 
New  Testament,  is  plain.    To  say  that  the  Persians  derired 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  firom  the  Jews,  seems  to  os 
as  arbitrary  as  it  would  be  to  affirm  that  they  also  borrowed 


avesta.    Zeitschrift  Moigenlandischen  Gesellschaft,  Band  IX.  ss.  2S6, 
683-692. 
*  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Vol.  I.  pp.  426-431. 


THE  PERSIAN  DOCTRINE   OF   A   FUTURE  LIFE.      438 

from  them  the  custom,  mentioned  by  Ezekid,  of  weepmg 
for  Tammuz  in  the  gates  of  the  temple. 

In  view  of  the  whole  case  as  it  stands,  until  further  re- 
searches either  strengthen  it  or  put  a  different  aspect  upon 
it,  we  feel  forced  to  think  that  the  doctrine  of  a  general  res- 
urrection was  a  component'  element  in  the  ancient  Avestan 
religion.     A  further  question  of  considerable  interest  arises 
to  the  nature  of  this  resurrection,  whether  it  was  conceived 
physical  or  as  spiritual.    We  have  no  data  to  furnish  a 
determinate  answer.      Plutarch   quotes  from  Theopompus 
^ihe  opinion  of  the  Magi,  that  when,  at  the  subdual  of  Ahri- 
.man,  men  are  restored  to  life,  ^' they  shall  need  no  nourish- 
-ment  and  cast  no  shadow."      It  would  appear,  then,  that 
itliey  must  be  spirits.     The  inference  is  not  reliable ;  for  the 
.  -idea  may  be,  that  all  causes  of  decay  shall  be  removed,  so 
iibAt  no  food  will  be  necessary  to  supply  the  wasting  pro- 
cesses which  no  longer  e:tist ;  and  that  the  entire  creation 
jmill  be  so  full  of  light  that  a  shade  will  be  impossible.     It 
-night  be  thought  that  the  familiar  Persian  conception  of 
*ngels,  both  good  and  evil,  fervers  and  devs,  and  the  recep- 
iikm  of  departed  souls  into  their  company,  with  Ormuzd  in 
'.Glarotman,  or  with  Ahriman  in  Dutsakh,  would  exclude  the 
belief  in  a  future  bodily  resurrection.     But  Christians  and 
'i  Mohammedans  at  this  day  believe  in  immaterial  angels  and 
.•Amis,  and  in  the  immediate  entrance  of  disembodied  souls 
'  -.i^Km  reward  or  punishment  in  their  society,  and  still  believe 
^  •:iii  their  final  return  to  the  earth,  and  a  restoration  to  them 
~-  t«f  their  former  tabernacles  of  flesh.     Discordant,  incoherent, 
•^as  the  two  beliefs  may  be,  if  their  coexistence  is  a  fact 
^with   cultivated  and  reasonable  people  now,  much  more 
-     was  it  possible  with  an  undisciplined  and  credulous  populace 
^     liiree  thousand  years  in  the  past.     Again,  it  has  been  argued 
'    that  the  indignity  with  which  the  ancient  Persians  treated 

VOL.   V.  NO.   IV.  87 


434      THB  PEBSIAN   DOCTBIirE   OF   A  FUTUBE   LIFB. 

the  dead  body,  refasing  to  burj  it  or  to  bum  it  lest  the  earth 
or  the  fire  be  polluted,  is  incompatible  with  the  supposition 
that  they  expected  a  resurrection  of  the  fiesh.     In  the  first 
place  it  is  impossible  to  reason  safely  to  any  dogmatic  con- 
clusions from  the  funereal  customs  of  a  people.      These 
usages  are  so  much  a  matter  of  capricious  priestly  ritual, 
ancestral  tradition,  unreasoning  instinct,  blind  or  morbid 
superstition,  that  any  consistent  doctrinal  construction  is  not 
fairly  to  be  put  upon  them.     Secondly,  the  Zoroastrians  did 
not  express  scorn  or  loathing  for  th^  corpse  by  their  manner 
of  disposing  of  it     The  greatest  pains  were  taken  to  keep  it 
from  disgusting  decay,  by  placing  it  in  ^^the  driest,  purest, 
openest  place,"  upon  a  summit  where  fresh  winds  blow,  and 
where  certain  beasts  and  birds,  accounted  most  sacred,  might 
eat  the  corruptible  portion ;  then  the  dean  bones  were  care- 
fully buried.    The  dead  body  had  yielded  to  the  hostile 
working  of  Ahriman,  and  become  his  possession.      The 
priests  bore  it  out  on  a  bed  or  a  carpet,  and  exposed  it  to 
the  light  in  the  gaze  of  the  sun.     The  demon  was  thus  ex- 
orcised; and  the  body  became  further  purified   in   being 
eaten  by  the  sacred  animals,  and  no  putrescence  was  left  to 
contaminate  earth,  water,  or  fire.*     Furthermore,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  modem  Parsees  dispose  of  their  dead  in  ex- 
actly the  same  manner  depicted  in  the  earliest  accounts ;  and 
yet  they  zealously  hold  to  a  literal  resurrection  of  the  body. 
If  the  giving  of  the  fiesh  to  the  dog  and  the  vulture  in  their 
case  exists  with  this  belief,  it  may  have  done  so  with  their  an- 
cestors before  Nebuchadnezzar  swept  the  Jews  to  Babylon. 
Finally,  it  is  quite  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  old  Fe^ 
sian  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  did  include  the  physical  body, 
when  we  recollect  that  in  the  Zoroastrian  scheme  of  thought 


*  Spiegel's  Avesta,  as.  82, 104,  109,  III,  122. 


THE   PERSIAN   DOOTBINB   OF  A  FUTURE   LIFE.      43$ 

there  is  no  hostility  to  matter  or  to  earthly  life,  but  all  is 
regarded  as  pure*  and  good,  except  so  far  as  the  serpent 
Ahriinan  has  introdirced  evil.  The  expulsion  of  this  evil 
'with  his  ultimate  overthrow,  the  restoration  of  all  as  it  was 
at  first,  in  purity,  gladness,  and  eternal  life,  would  be  the 
obvious  and  consistent  carrying  out  of  the  system.  Hatred 
of  earthly  life,  contempt  for  the  flesh,  the  notion  of  an  essen- 
tial and  irreconcilable  warfare  of  soul  against  body,  are  Brah- 
xpfUiic  and  Manichsean,  not  Zoroastrian.  Still  the  ground- 
plan  and  style  of  thought  may  not  have  been  consistently 
adhered  to.  The  expectation  that  the  Very  same  body 
would  be  restored  was  known  to  the  Jews  a  century  or  two 
llefore  Christ  One  of  the  martyrs,  whose  history  is  told  in  the 
Second  Book  of  Maccabees,  in  the  agonies  of  death  plucked 
out  his  ovm  bowels,  and  called  on  the  Lord  to  restore  those 
to  him  again  at  the  resurrection.  Considering  the  notion  of 
a  resurrection  of  the  body  as  a  sensuous  burden  on  the  idea 
of  a  resurrection  of  the  soul,  it  may  have  been  a  later  devel- 
opment originating  with  the  Jews.  But  it  seems  to  us  de- 
cidedly more  probable  that  the  Magi  ^^^^  it  as  a  legitimate 
part  of  their  creed  before  they  came  in  contact  with  the 
ohildren  of  Israel.  Such  an  opinion  may  be  modestly  held 
until  further  information  is  afforded,  or  some  new  and  fatal 
objection  brought. 

After  this  resurrection  a  thorough  separation  will  be  made 
of  the  good  from  the  bad.  *<  Father  shall  be  divided  from 
c^ild,  sister  from  brother,  friend  from  friend.  The  inno- 
cent one  shall  weep  over  the  guilty  one,  the  guilty  one  shall 
weep  for  himself.  Of  two  sisters  one  shall  be  pure,  one  cor- 
rapt;  they  shall  be  treated  according  to  their  deeds."* 
Those  who  have  not,  in  the  intermediate  state,  fully  expi- 
— — ^  ^^ 

*  Rhode's  Heilige  Sage  des  Zendvolks,  s.  467/ 


486      THE  PERSIAN  DOCTBIKB   OF   A  FUTUBE   LIFE. 

ated  their  sins,  will,  in  sight  of  the  whole  creation,  be  re- 
manded to  the  pit  of  panishment.  But  the  author  of  evil 
shall  not  exult  over  them  for  ever.  Their  prison-house  will 
soon  be  thrown  open.  The  pangs  of  three  terrible  days 
and  nights,  equal  to  the  agonies  of  nine  thousand  years,  will 
purify  all,  even  the  worst  of  the  demons.  The  anguished  cry 
of  the  damned,  as  they  writhe  in  the  lurid  ealdron  of  to]> 
ture,  rising  to  heaven,  will  find  pity  in  the  soul  of  Ormozd, 
and  he  will  release  them  from  their  sufierings.  A  blazing 
star,  the  comet  Gurtzscher,  will  fall  upon  the  earth.  In  the 
heat  of  its  conflagration,  great  and  small  mountains  will  melt 
and  flow  together  as  liquid  metal.  Through  this  glowing 
flood  all  human  kind  must  pass.  To  the  righteous  it  will 
prove  as  a  pleasant  bath,  of  the  temperature  of  milk ;  bat 
on  the  wicked  the  flame  will  inflict  terrific  pain.  Ahriman 
will  run  up  and  down  Chinevad  in  the  perplexities  of  an- 
guish and  despair.  The  earth-wide  fire-stream,  flowing  on, 
will  cleanse  every  spot  and  every  thing.  Even  the  loath- 
some realm  of  darkness  and  torment  shall  be  burnished,  and 
made  a  part  of  the  all-inclusive  Paradise.  Ahriman  himself, 
reclaimed  to  virtue,  replenished  with  primal  light,  abjuring 
the  memories  of  his  envious  ways,  and  furling  hencefortb 
the  sable  standard  of  his  rebellion,  shall  become  a  ministe^ 
ing  spirit  of  the  Most  High,  and,  together  with  Ormnzd, 
chant  the  praises  of  Time- without- Bounds.  All  darkness, 
falsehood,  suffering,  shall  flee  utterly  away,  and  the  whole 
universe  be  filled  by  the  illumination  of  good  spirits  blessed 
with  fruitions  of  eternal  dehght  In  regard  to  the  fate  rfj 
man, 

Sach  are  the  parables  Zartasht  addressed 
To  Iran's  faith,  in  the  ancient  Zend-A.Yest. 

TV.  B.  A* 


LETTERS  FROM  ABROAD.  437 

LETTERS   FROM  ABROAD. 

BY   REV.   WILLIAM   MOUNTFORD. 

Lake  Como.  —  Milan. — Pavia.  —  Genoa. — Leghorn. — Pisa.  — 

Son^nto. 

From  the  Splugen  Pass  our  course  was  along  Lake  Como, 
and  through  Milan  and  Genoa,  to  Leghorn. 

Chiavenna  was  our  first  stopping-place  in  Italy.     And 

there  so  singular  and  so  interesting  so  many  common  things 

seemed,  because  of  their  foreign  names  or  color !     I  walked 

from  one  contradina  to  another,  and  from  piazza  to  piazza ; 

that  is,  from  street  to  street  and  from  square  to  square.     On 

the  signs  I  was  delighted  with  the  words  sartore  for  tailor, 

cabxilago  for  shoemaker,  ya&ro  for  blacksmith,  and  droghiere 

for  grocer.     And  the  common  names  of  Benedetto,  Battista, 

Benvenuto,  Giovanni,  and  Giacomo  had  a  charm  for  me  in 

the  reading,  like  words  out  of  old  romances,  and  like  dim 

reminiscences  of  pleasant   people  whom  I   had   formerly 

known.     I  entered  a  caffe  to  try  what  meaning  there  might 

be  for  others  in  the  words  ''  Una  tazzia  di  cafie " ;  and  I  was 

^rsU;ified  by  finding  that  at  once  it  was  understood  as  a  de- 

mand  for  a  cup  of  black  coffee  with  sugar,  and  a  glass  of  cold 

water.     Seeing  a  great  square  tower  standing  alone,  I  made 

-   it  be  understood  that  I  wished  to  know  if  it  were  ^^  una  cam- 

iMuaile  " ;  and  being  answered  that  it  was,  I  then  inferred  its 

^   lieighborhood  to  a  church.     However,  the  church  was  too 

r .  tAark  for  me  to  enter.     But  alongside  of  the  church  was  a 

oloistered  square,  round  which  I-  walked,  dimly  discerning 

^lie  tablets  and  pictures  on  the  walls.     Afler  returning  to  the 

^otel  I  stood  upon  the  balcony  which  overhangs  the  street, 

i^nd  I  thought  that  it  was  like  a  scene  on  the  stage,  or  like 

»mething  in  an  old  picture,  the  view  which  I  had  of  the 


QT* 


488  LETTEBS   FBOM  ABROiLD. 

long,  narrow  street  with  a  rivulet  running  down  it,  and  with 
a  dim  lamp  hanging  here  and  there  over  the  middle,  bj 
cords  high  up  drawn  from  side  to  side. 

Yarenna,  where  next  we  stopped,  is  on  the  Lake  of  Como. 
.  O  what  an  evening  it  was,  —  that  first  evening  on  the  lake 
of  Como !  Soon  as  the  sun  went  down  out  of  sight  hegan 
what  is  the  peculiar  charm  of  the  scenery  there, — the  haze, 
soft  and  purple,  which  so  beautifies  distant  objects.  And  in 
that  haze,  that  warm,  still  evening,  their  tops  high  in  the  air, 
and  their  shadows  on  the  lake,  how  beautiful  the  mountains 
were !  Satisfied,  happy^  I  sat  in  their  presence,  with  not  a 
sound  to  dbturb'me,  and  with  nothing  to  be  heard  but  the 
splash  of  the  water  against  the  steps  of  the  house,  till  there 
came  quietly  along  the  shore  a  boat  with  a  lamp  blazing  in 
front  of  it,  and  with  a  fisherman  bending  over  the  side  with 
a  spear,  intent  on  his  business. '  And  I  said :  ^  This  satisfies 
me.  In  Switzerland,  I  do  not  know  that  my  expectations 
were  surpassed ;  but  on  this  lake  they  are  indeed  exceeded" 

After  leaving  the  Lake  of  Como,  we  stayed  a  few  days  at 
Milan.     It  is  a  fine,  flourishing  city.     It  is  an  ancient  city; 
and  when  it  was  Homan,  it  was  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  the 
empire.     But  of  all  the  temples,  baths,  theatres,  statues, 
arches,  of  which  once  it  was  full,  scarcely  anything  has  snr- 
vived  the  ravages  of  Attila  with  his  Goths,  and  of  Frederic 
Barbarossa,  instigated  as  he  was  by  the  jealous  cities  of  tbe 
neighborhood,  Como,  Cremona,  and  Pavia.     Indeed,  it  is 
said  that  on  Palm  Sunday,  in  the  year  1162,  of  all  Miitfi 
nothing  was  left  standing  but  the  churches,  and  of  BooiaD .  ^ 
Milan  nothing  whatever,  except  some  ten  or  fifteen  coIudds  I  ^ 
of  some  old  edifice,  ranged  in  front  of  a  church,  and  serrii^ 
as  a  kind  of  approach  to  iL 

At  Milan,  the  churches  are  the  chief  objects  of  interest;!  ^ 
and  deservedly  so,  from  their  character  and  from  histflTf'l  ^ 


LETTERS   FROM  ABROAD.  439 

For  perhaps  in  all  Italy  Milan  was  next  after  Home  for  in- 
fluence, during  those  times  while  Christianity  was  supersed- 
ing Paganism,  and  was  again  itself  in  its  simplicity,  being 
superseded  by  Pagan  ceremonies. 

The  church  of  San  Vittore  al  Corpo  is  an  old  edifice,  and 
is  probably,  as  a  church,  the  most  ancient  in  origin  of  any 
in  Milan.  In  this  church  St  Ambrose,  at  the  head  of  the 
growing  and  popular  party,  achieved  his  victory  over  those 
who  claimed  to  abide  more  strictly  by  the  doctrine  of  the 
Apostles  as  to  the  unity  of  God.  In  this  church  was  first 
used  the  chant  called  Ambrosian,  and  the  ritual  which  is 
now  the  liturgy  of  the  diocese  of  Milan.  In  all  the  Roman 
Church,  it  is,  I  suppose,  only  in  this  diocese  that  there  is  em- 
ployed a  liturgy  difierent  from  that  of  Rome.  In  the  ear- 
lier ages,  and  indeed  till  within  the  last  three  hundred  years 
in  many  countries,  and  sometimes  in  every  province  in  the 
same  country,  there  was  a  liturgy  peculiar  to  it.  At  pres- 
ent, of  all  the  communities  which  own  the  authority  of  the 
Pope,  probably  the  diocese  of  Milan  is  the  only  exception 
to  that  uniformity  of  worship  which  it  has  long  been  the 
policy  of  the  Vatican  to  establish.  The  version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  is  read  during  the  service  is  not  the  Vulgate, 
which  is  the  translation  used  in  every  other  Catholic  district, 
but  is  an  older,  very  early  version  called  the  Italic.  The 
Milanese  are  very  proud  and  jealous  of  their  ecclesiastical 
peculiarities,  and  it  is  said  that  often  they  speak  of  them- 
selves as  Ambrosians  in  contradistinction  to  Romanists.  It 
was  at  this  same  church  of  San  Vittore  al  Corpo  that  the 
Emperor  Theodosius  was  barrel  from  entrance,  one  Sunday, 
after  an  atrocious  act  of  slaughter.  As  he  came  to  the  gates 
of  the  church,  he  was  met  by  Ambrose,  glowing  with  Chris- 
tian indignation.  This  act  of  Christian  discipline,  from  the 
age  in  which  it  occurred,  no  doubt  emboldened  afterwards 


440  LETTERS  FBOM  ABBOAD. 

many  a  person  to  deeds  of  priesUy  daring,  and  so  was  of  a 
most  decisive  character  in  its  influence  on  the  Christian 
Charch,  and  on  the  growing  pretensions  of  the  hierarchy. 

The  church  of  Sant'  Ambrogio  was  built  about  a  thousand 
years  ago,  and  was  erected  on  the  site  of  a  church  built  bj 
St.  Ambrose  in  the  fourth  century,  and  of  which  it  was  prob- 
ably made  to  preserve  the  chief  characteristics.  In  front  of 
the  church  is  a  large  square  enclosed  on  three  sides  by  ar- 
cades. In  early  Christian  times,  not  the  very  earliest,  but 
yet  in  early  times,  only  baptized  persons  were  admitted  into 
the  church;  and  those  who  were  merely  catechumens  as- 
sembled themselves  in  the  atrium,  the  square  in  front  of 
the  holy  edifice,  whence  they  looked  in  through  the  gates, 
as  at  a  place  of  privilege  and  Christian  attainment.  In  at 
the  doors  of  this  church  of  Sant'  Ambrogio  I  passed,  not 
without  a  thought  for  them  who  had  formerly  been  stopped 
at  its  gates,  —  pagan  seekers  after  light  in  those  days  when 
heathenism  itself  was  growing  even  darker  than  its  wont 
X^  Iq  this  church,  a  strange,  prominent  object  standing  in  the 
nave  is  a  pillar  about  fifteen  feet  in  height,  on  the  top  of 
which  is  a  serpent  with  one  coil  in  its  body,  and  perhaps 
about  four  feet  in  length.  In  the  year  1001  it  was  given  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Milan  by  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople, 
as  being  the  brazen  serpent  which  was  made  by  Moses  and 
set  up  on  a  pole  in  the  desert,  apparently  the  text  being  for- 
gotten in  which  it  is  said  that  Hezekiah  "brake  in  pieces  the 
brazen  serpent  which  Moses  had  made  :  for  unto  those  days 
the  children  of  Israel  did  burn  incense  to  it."  It  is  supposed 
that  it  may  originally  have  been  some  talisman,  such  as  would 
seem  to  have  been  once  used  in  Alexandria.  Another  ob- 
ject of  interest  in  the  church  is  a  tomb  of  the  fourth  century, 
in  which  was  buried  the  daughter  of  that  Emperor  Theodo- 
sius  whom  St.  Ambrose  shut  out  at  the  church  doors  amogg 


LETTERS    FROM  ABROAD.  441 

the  catechumens.  The  pulpit  is  of  marble,  and  is  very 
quaintly  decorated  with  workmanship  unquestionably  very 
old  from  its  being  so  very  grotesque.  On  one  side  of  the 
pulpit  is  a  representation  of  what  was  a  very  characteristic 
usage  of  the  early  Christians,  —  the  love-feast.  These  prim- 
itive Christians  sit  at  a  long  table  covered  with  viands  and 
bottles,  and  every  one  of  them  has  a  great  knife  in  his  hand. 
To  the  Pagans  there  seemed  to  be  a  strange  mystery  in  the 
social  and  religious  meetings  of  the  early  Christians ;  and  to 
ourselves,  perhaps,  there  is  a  something  strange  and  solemn 
in  the  sound  of  the  word  dydTrrj ;  but  this  oyaTn?,  this  love- 
feast  carved  on  the  pulpit  at  Milan,  is  of  a  character  very 
simple  and  domestic,  and  even  jovial. 

But  the  cathedral  is  the  grand  church,  and  indeed  it  is  the 
glory  of  Milan.  Now  nearly  five  hundred  years  it  has  been 
in  building,  and  it  is  yet  scarcely  finish^.  The  first  stone 
of  the  edifice  was  laid  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  Gian' 
Galeazzo  Visconti ;  and  still  the  work  of  erection  is  going 
on.  By  Napoleon  there  was  expended  on  the  cathedral  the 
sum  of  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  work  of  many 
ages  and  of  many  successive  generations  of  workmen,  and 
of  many  master-minds,  it  is  indeed  worthy  of  the  labor  which 
it  has  cost.  Yet  laborious  is  not  at  all  what  it  would  seem 
to  have  been  as  a  work.  It  does  not  look  like  a  painful  pil- 
ing of  stones,  but  rather  like  a  growth  of  nature,  like  some 
majestic  tree,  the  roots  of  which  were  fastened  in  the  earth, 
and  the  great  leafy  arms  of  which  were  stretched  out  under- 
neath the  heavens  silently  and  without  effort.  The  building 
is  nearly  five  hundred  feet  in  length,  and,  measured  to  the 
top  of  the  spire,  it  is  more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  height.  The  roof  is  supported  from  withinside  by 
fifty-six  pillars.  And,  both  inside  and  outside,  every  stone 
of  the  edifice  is  of  polished  marble.    It  is  indeed  a  wonder- 


442  LETTERS   FBOX  ABROAD. 

ful  work.     In  the  western  end  there  are  five  doors,  or  rather 
there  are  five  pairs  of  great  gates,  as  entrances  to  the  cathe- 
dral.    Between  these  gates  and  above  them,  and  up  to  the 
very  top  of  it,  all  the  vast  front  is  alive  with  carving,— 
scenes  and  objects  from  the  Scriptures.     But  of  walls  Mrlj 
proportioned,  of-buttresses,  windows,  roofs,  pinnacles,  turrets, 
and  spires,  no  mention  or  enumeration  can  suggest  the  effect 
On  the  outside  of  the  building,  and  counting  only  the  de- 
tached figures  which  stand  in  niches  and  on  the  pinnacles, 
there  are  said  to  be  more  than  three  thousand  statues.  Here, 
ranged  in  order  and  exalted  on  high,  are  the  brotherhood 
of  the  prophets,  the  company  of  the  Apostles,  a  noble  army 
of  martyrs,  a  congregation  of  saints,  and  indeed  a  whole  pop- 
ulation in  marble.     These  statues,  standing  day  and  night 
in  their  appointed  attitudes  of  endurance,  hope,  warning, 
watchfulness,  instruction,  meditation,  aspiration,  and  prayer, 
are  dumb  indeed,  but  they  are  dumb  eloquence,  and  they 
seem  to  fill  the  city  with  the  silent,  subtile  effect  of  their 
unuttered  speech. 

Underneath  the  fioor  of  the  cathedral,  in  his  sepulchral 
chapel,  lies  the  body  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo.  The  descent 
into  the  chapel  is  by  steps,  underneath  the  choir.  The  price 
for  seeing  the  body  is  five  francs.  This  sum  I  did  not  grudge 
for  once,  for  seeing  what  really  are  the  relics  of  a  person 
who  has  been  canonized  as  a  saint,  though  quite  a  modem 
one,  it  is  true.  The  walls  and  the  roof  of  the  chapel  are 
lined  with  silver  gilt,  embossed  in  which  are  scenes  from  the 
life  of  San  Carlo,  —  his  birth,  —  his  giving  to  the  poor  the 
proceeds  of  a  large  estate  which  he  had  inherited,  —  his  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacrament  during  the  time  of  the  great 
plague,  —  his  preservation  from  death  by  having  the  ball  of 
an  assassin  drop  harmlessly  down,  after  having  been  struck 
by  it  on  his  back,  —  his  presidency  over  a  reforming  coovo- 


LETTEBS   FROM  ABROAD.  443 

cation  of  the  clergy, —  and  a  great  translation  of  saintly  rel- 
ics, in  which  he  was  concerned.  On  the  top  of  the  altar  is 
the  shrine  in  which  are  the  remains  of  San  Carlo.  The 
firont  of  it  is  so  constructed  as  that  it  can  be  lowered  with 
the  turning  of  the  wheel.  The  priest  by  whom  I  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  chapel  put  on  a  white  fringed  tippet  over 
his  black  robes,  and  then  he  laid  open  the  shrine  of  San 
Carlo.  In  a  glass  coffin  inside  lies  the  body  of  the  saint, 
bathed  like  a  living  bishop,  and  with  jewels  and  precious 
stones  about  him,  of  great  value.  Indeed,  it  is  claimed  for 
this  shrine  that  it  is  the  most  costly  in  the  world,  not  even 
excepting  that  of  the  Three  Kings  at  Cologne.  The  face  of 
the  saint  is  somewhat  shrunk,  and  is  very  much  discolored,  — 
is  indeed  black.  The  remains  are  now  nearly  three  hundred 
years  old.  After  I  had  satisfied  myself  with  the  sight,  with  a 
few  turns  of  the  wheel  by  the  priest,  the  front  of  the  shrine 
was  lifted  again  into  its  place,  and  the  body  of  San  Carlo 
was  again  in  darkness. 

Bound  Milan,  and  indeed  from  Como  to  the  Apennines, 
the  country  is  very  flat,  and  is  not  very  interesting.  A  dull 
journey  from  Milan  to  Pavia  was  much  relieved  by  a  visit 
to  the  monastery  of  Certosa.  This  is  said  to  be  the  finest 
monastery  in  the  world.  And  I  easily  believe  it  to  be  such ; 
for  the  church  belonging  to  it  is  truly  grand.  The  monas- 
tery was  founded  in  the  fourteenth  century.  And  the  con- 
dition imposed  upon  the  monks  was,  that  they  should  spend 
their  funds  in  augmenting  the  glory  of  the  Madonna  by 
beautifying  their  church,  which  is  dedicated,  by  the  words  on 
the  front,  ^  To  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  Mother,  the  Daughter, 
and  the  Bride  of  God."  Strange  words  these  and  startling 
on  a  first  perusal  of  them  in  great  letters !  But  turning 
away  from  the  theological  questions  suggested  by  these 
words,  what  a  sight  it  was  for  admiration,  the  front  of  that 


444  LETTERS   FBOH   ABROAD. 

charchy  all  covered  with  sculpture  from  the  ground  to  the 
roof  I  But  inside,  the  church  is  more  marvellous  still,  for 
everything  which  art  can  work  upon  has  been  richlj  deco- 
rated, —  pillar  and  roof,  chapel  and  altar,  wall  and  window, 
rood  and  chalice.  Age  after  age  some  of  the  best  painters 
of  Italy  and  the  chief  sculptors  of  their  time  have  been  em- 
ployed on  this  Certosa.  And  the  result  of  their  work  has 
been  this  mosaic  of  painting  and  sculpture,  this  monument 
of  art.  At  the  door  of  the  church  we  were  met  by  a  monk, 
smiling  and  courteous,  and  by  him  we  were  ushered  into  the 
building.  Soon  he  opened  a  gate  into  one  of  the  chapels, 
and  on  my  entering  it  he  closed  it,  shutting  me  inside,  and 
complying  also  with  a  regulation  of  the  convent,  by  which 
no  woman  is  admissible  into  the  church  beyond  the  naye,— 
not  into  any  of  the  chapels,  nor  into  the  transepts,  nor  into 
the  choir.  This  exclusiveness  as  to  females  would  seem  to 
be  singular  in  a  church  dedicated  specially  to  a  woman. 

At  Pavia  we  were  detained  a  day,  because  of  a  bridge 
over  the  Po  having  been  broken  by  a  flood.  In  this  city 
there  is  a  cathedral  unfinished,  but  begun  upon  a  grand  scal& 
A  sad,  melancholy,  ruinous  look  has  this  Duomo.  As  I  en- 
tered it,  I  noticed  standing  in  one  comer  a  large  model  of 
what  the  church  was  intended  to  be.  But  this  also  is  ruinous, 
and  is  much  worm-eaten.  While  I  was  looking  round  on  the 
walls  of  this  great  failure,  a  little  ragged  boy  beckoned  to  me 
vehemently.  And  on  my  advancing  towards  him,  he  runup 
the  steps  of  an  altar,  and  by  two  handles  took  down  the  front 
of  it.  I  wondered  much  at  what  the  urchin  was  doing.  It 
was  a  shrine  which  he  was  showing,  —  an  ancient  silver 
shrine,  —  that  of  St.  Augustine.  His  remains,  transported 
from  one  place  to  another,  at  last  have  rest  in  Pavia.  I 
knelt  upon  the  steps  of  the  altar,  and  looked  in  upon  the 
shrine,  which  encloses  dust  which  was  once  alive  and  ablaze 


LETTERS   FROM  ABROAD.  445 

with  such  a  vigorous,  fervent  spirit.  I  thought  of  his  soul  in 
heaven,  and  of  his  spirit  diffused  hj  his  books  through  the 
world  and  time ;  and  then  I  looked  at  this  coffer  of  his  dust. 
I  thought  of  his  Confessions,  and  I  longed  for  that  grace  by 
which  like  him  I  could  confess  the  past,  as  though  it  were  a 
thing  I  was  free  from,  and  as  though  it  were  the  dark  morn- 
ing of  a  cloudless  noonday.  I  thought  of  his  City  of  God  on 
earth,  and  I  wondered  what  now  his  thoughts  would  be  of  its 
coming,  could  he  know  what  Hippo,  the  old  city  of  his  resi-' 
dence,  has  been  for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  The  tomb 
underneath  which  the  shrine  is  deposited  is  a  pile  of  most 
beautiful  sculptures  in  marble,  in  which  are  represented  the 
chief  events  of  Augustine's  life.  Again  and  again,  after  hav- 
ing left  it,  I  returned  to  this  tomb,  where  I  suppose,  without 
8ny  doubt,  are  enclosed  the  remains  of  the  great  African,  the 
weldings  of  whose  passionate,  fervent  intellect  have  become 
the  theology  of  the .  Catholic  Church,  and  in  whose  brain, 
like  precious  stones  in  the  earth's  primeval  fires,  were  formed 
those  sentences  so  marvellous  for  their  condensed  thought, 
and  which,  like  gems,  are  luminous  on  every  side  to  which 
they  are  turned. 

At  the  University,  which  is  very  ancient,  and  which  for- 
merly was  very  famous,  I  walked  in  the  cloisters,  in  which 
are  many  tablets  and  monuments  in  memory  of  deceased 
professors*  Among  these  memorials,  the  largest  and  the 
most  beautifiil  is  that  to  the  memory  of  Alciati,  an  eminent 
professor  of  law  in  the  sixteenth  century.  His  character 
was  very  high,  and  for  a  long  time,  wherever  law  was  known, 
his  name  was  known.  He  was  one  of  those  early  few,  who 
thought  that  the  scholastic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  a  tra- 
dition of  the  Catholic  Church,  like  transubstantiation  and  the 
use  of  images.     He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Socini. 

Between  Pavia  and  Genoa  are  the  Apennines.    In  cross- 

VOL.   V.  NO.   IT.  38 


446  LETTEBS   V&OU  ABBOAD. 

ing  them  we  foand  verj  little  to  interest  us,  —  nothing,  in- 
deed, except  as  being  a  line,  with  crossing  which  Italy  seems 
to  be  more  Italian,  monks  more  nnmeroas,  vegetation  more 
tropical,  and  fleas  and  beggars  more  afflictive. 

At  Genoa  we  went  from  church  to  church,  and  from  one 
palace  to  another,  admiring  pictures.  These  pictures  are 
the  glorj  and  the  pride  of  Grenoa,  and,  painted  for  the  mer- 
chant-princes of  the  city,  in  its  grandest  days,  they  illustrate 
the  intimate  connection  which  there  is  between  commerce 
and  the  arts ;  and  they  witness  how  the  liberal  arts  find  good 
firiends  in  that  comprehension  of  thought  and  that  activity  of 
mind  which  commerce  requires  and  elicits.  The  merchant- 
princes  of  Grenoa  were  the  patrons  and  the  friends  of  artists; 
but  it  would  seem  as  though  their  descendants,  who  have 
been  princes  without  being  merchants,  had  scarcely  ever  ac- 
quired of  themselves  either  a  picture  or  a  statue.  But  what 
recurred  to  me  again  and  again,  as  I  looked  across  the  port 
and  down  the  Bay  of  Genoa,  was  the  thought  of  Christopher 
Columbas,  and  how  as  a  boy  he  looked  westward,  ignorant 
of  the  wonder,  which  soon  he  was  to  experience  drawing 
him  in  a  manner  which  others  might  trust  to,  as  his  feeling, 
but  yet  which  only  he  himself  could  understand. 

From  Genoa  to  Pisa  the  first  part  of  the  road  we  found 
to  be  very  beautiful,  —  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea,  in  the  sands  of  which  grows  the  aloe,  and  also  lux- 
uriantly strong  the  cactus,  —  and  over  mountains,  the  sides 
of  which  are  often  varied  by  red  and  yellow  soils,  by  gray 
rocks,  and  at  Carrara  by  spots  of  white  marble,  —  and 
through  forests  of  olive-trees,  the  gray  color  of  which  con- 
trasts so  strongly  with  the  dark  green  of  the  tall  cypress. 

At  Pisa  is  the  cathedral  to  which  belongs  the  famous  bap- 
tistery, and  which  has  the  stiU  more  celebrated  leaning  tow- 
er for  its  campanile,  and  to  which  anciently  belonged,  as  a 


I 


LETTERS   FBOM   ABROAD.  447 

buTjing-ground,  the  Campo  Santo,  with  its  painted  cloisters 
and  its  ancient  monuments.  In  the  cathedral  still  hangs  the 
lamp  with  the  accidental  swinging  of  which  the  thoughts  of 
Gralileo,  when  a  youth,  were  started  to  discover  the  property 
of  the  pendulum,  and  the  way  of  measuring  time  in  its  flight. 
In  the  cathedral  it  is  now  black  with  rust  and  age ;  but  in 
the  wide  temple  of  science  it  yields  a  light  visible  through 
the  windows  to  the  ends  of  the  world.  Vespers  were  being 
gang*while  I  was  in  the  cathedral,  and  as,  clothed  some  in 
white,  and  some  in  purple  and  white,  and  some  in  brown 
and  white,  the  priests  and  singing-boys  grouped  themselves 
together  round  a  great  desk  in  the  middle  of  the  choir,  or 
sat  each  one  in  his  ovm  seat,  aged  men  and  little  boys,  I 
thought  there  was  an  air  of  ease  and  even  of  enjoyment 
among  them  which  was  new  to  me.  I  stood  at  a  little  dis- 
tance, watching  their  mystic  movements,  and  listening  to 
their  singing,  which  was  sometimes  so  loud  and  fierce  and 
joyous  that  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  in  it  a  something  Co- 
rybantic.  As  I  wondered  and  enjoyed,  a  gentleman  walked 
up  the  steps  to  the  choir,  and  stood  as  nearly  on  the  inside  of 
it  as  he  could.  He  was  dressed  in  black,  was  very  neat  in 
his  appearance,  wore  spectacles,  and  had  an  umbrella  under 
his  arm.  He  was  an  odd  sight,  as  he  stood  there,  seeming 
as  though  much  amazed  at  what  was  passing  before  him, 
and  as  though  also  quietly  endeavoring  to  discover  some 
possible  excuse  for  it,  or  some  hidden  meaning  in  it.  On 
those  old  ceremonies  he  seemed  as  though  gazing  with  eyes 
firom  another  world. 

From  Pisa  to  Leghorn  is  a  short  distance  over  a  flat 
country.  At  the  latter  place  I  visited  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogue in  consequence  of  some  expectation  of  there  being  in 
it  much  that  was  worthy  of  notice.  But  I  was  deceived ; 
lor  I  found  nothing  in  it  worth  visiting.  However,  I  thought 


448  LBTTEB8   FBOX  ABROAD. 

to  myself  that  scarcely  could  I  be  said  fmrly  to  have  readied 
into  Italy,  till  I  had  seen  something  of  the  Jews,  as  well  as 
of  priests,  monks,  olive-trees,  and  pictures. 

We  came  to  Sorrento,  hoping  for  coolness  and  quiet.  And 
we  have  not  been  disappointed.  It  is  not  altogether  the 
place  which  we  had  expected,  but  yet  we  are  satisfied, 
pleased  with  it.  If  it  were  a  village,  perhaps  it  would  be 
more  agreeable  than  it  is ;  but  it  is  a  city,  and  a  very  little 
city.  It  is  surrounded  by  walls,  and  has  a  cathedral ;  but  it 
has  also  very  narrow,  dirty  streets ;  and  it  has  only  one  out- 
let, except  into  the  sea  or  up  the  side  of  a  mountain.  Still 
it  is  a  very  pleasant  place,  though  I  do  not  know  why,  and 
scarcely  care  why.  Perhaps  we  feel  it  to  be  so  from  the 
same  causes  for  which  the  Greek  founders  of  it  called  it 
after  the  Sirens ;  a  something  oi  whose  presence,  perhaps, 
was  thought  to  be  felt  here. 

I  never  have  known  a  place  where  it  was  so  easy  to  do 
nothing  as  here,  and  with  so  little  reproach  of  conscience. 
Doing  nothing,  one  yet  does  not  feel  listless.  And  with  al< 
most  nothing  to  occupy  or  amuse,  yet  one  craves  nothing.  It 
is  not  merely  that  I  feel  indolent  here ;  for  I  do  not  feel  so; 
and  I  only  know  how  idle  I  have  been,  by  my  inability  to 
recollect  anything  which  I  have  done  or  thought,  or  even 
wished.  There  is  a  something  here  with  which  both  bodj 
and  mind  are  soothed.  It  is  something  more  than  the  qoiet 
of  the  dull  little  town.  It  is  the  air.  Such  air  as  it  is !  B 
is  such  as  I  never  have  breathed  elsewhere.  Sweet  it  may 
be  and  it  is ;  pure  it  may  be,  and  salubrious  it  may  be.  Bi^ 
it  is  something  more  still  than  this,  —  something  extraordi- 
nary :  it  is  satisfying ;  and  with  inhaling  it,  distant  things  sees 
more  and  more  distant,  and  the  things  close  about  one  seea 
more  and  more  homelike.  In  the  morning  I  step  out  into 
a  little  garden,  which  indeed  is  nothing  more  than  a  Mi 


LETTERS   FBOM   ABBOAD.  449 

avenue  bordered  with  orange-trees  and  lemon-trees,  and  with 
two  or  three  vines  which  reach  across  in  festoons  from  side 
to  side.  But  with  walking  up  and  down  the. enclosure  a  few 
times,  and  with  breathing  the  fresh  air,  the  place  seems  to 
me  to  become  Eljsian,  and  I  wonder  to  feel  how  well  I  am, 
and  even  how  good  and  virtuous.  I  am  sure  that  it  is  not 
merely  a  fancy,  but  that  really  there  is  a  something  in  the 
air  with  inhaling  which  one  grows  contented.  It  is  air  from 
the  sea ;  but  even  when  it  comes  from  the  open  Mediterra- 
nean, sweeping  up  the  bay  from  round  Capri,  there  is  no 
stimulus  in  it,  no  smell  of  salt,  nothing  but  health  perhaps 
and  quiescence. 

Since  I  wrote  what  is  above,  I  have  been  down  on  the 
sea-shore,  and  I  find  that  underneath  this  very  house  are  the 
remains  of  the  temple  of  the  Sirens.  Several  times  from 
above  I  had  seen  a  portion  of  the  ruins,  but  I  had  thought 
that  probably  they  were  of  the  temple  of  Neptune.  Of  this 
temple  of  the  Sirens  the  larger  part  has  fallen ;  having  prob- 
ably been  thrown  down  when  the  ground  underneath  it  sunk 
several  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea.  But  the  end  of  the 
edifice,  shaped  like  an  apse,  is  still  standing,  in  the  excava- 
tion which  was  made  for  it  in  the  rock  behind. 

On  this  coast,  not  far  from  here,  are  the  islands  of  the  Si- 
rens, past  which  Virgil  makes  ^neas  sail,  and  which  ancient- 
ly, he  says,  were  white  with  the  bones  of  victims,  —  persons 
who  from  having  listened  to  the  songs  of  the  Sirens  had 
been  disabled  from  ever  leaving  their  neighborhood.  And 
as  I  sat  this  morning  in  that  temple  of  theirs  down  below, 
I  thought  that  not  improbably  the  story  of  the  Sirens  arose 
from  some  experience  of  a  state  of  feeling  like  that  which 
I  have  described.  Indeed,  two  or  three  times  it  has  been 
our  intention  to  start  hence  for  Naples,  but  we  have  been 
disabled,  detained  by  we  do  not  know  what.     But  no  doubt 

38* 


450  LBTTSB8   VBOM  ABROAD. 

it  is  a  somethiDg  in  the  air,  a  something  subtile  and  perhaps 
enervating,  but  very  pleasant. 

And  jet,  too,  there  really  is  much  here  with  which  a  trav- 
eller may  be  pleased,  if  not  excited, — walks  of  some  dif- 
ficulty, but  yet  of  great  beauty,  —  a  dtj  yery  little  bat  very 
ancient,  dull  in  itself,  yet  interesting  to  a  stranger  on  accoant 
of  its  antiquities,  —  the  decaying  walls  and  gateways  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  —  the  remains  of  Roman  times, — and  traces 
perhaps  even  of  times  older  than  Rome  itself,  as  preserved 
by  the  women  in  the  shape  of  their  ear-rings,  and  in  the 
ornaments  which  they  wear  on  their  heads,  and  also  as  sur- 
viving in  the  cap  so  commonly  worn  by  the  men,  and  which 
is  of  Phrygian  origin. 

But  from  the  window  of  our  hotel  are  sights  for  both  eye 
and  memory  to  feed  upon, — the  breadth  of  the  beautiful 
bay,  the  opposite  shore  fringed  with  the  houses  of  Naples, 
Portici,  Pausilippo,  Pozzuoli,  and  Baisd.  But  these,  at  this 
distance,  —  what  are  they  all  for  attraction  in  comparison 
with  Vesuvius  ?  Exactly  opposite  to  our  windows,  across 
the  bay,  there  it  stands,  —  Vesuvius,  with  its  long,  sloping 
sides,  and  its  smoking  top.  During  two  or  three  nights, 
when  it  has  been  active,  what  a  fascinating  sight  it  has  been, 
flashing  up,  every  now  and  then,  with  no  great  blaze,  but 
yet  with  a  fire  plainly  not  of  man*s  kindling. 

But  by  Vesuvius  one  is  reminded  of  Herculaneum.  And 
with  thinking  of  Herculaneum,  O  how  all  round  this  baj 
antiquity  revives  I  and  how  the  opposite  coast  becomes  alive 
with  the  names  of  Neapolis,  Parthenope,  Puteoli,  Baise,  DiG- 
^enum,  Cumse,  and  Avemus  I  Naples  was  the  favorite  resoit 
of  the  Emperor  Augustus,  and  so  it  was  of  nearly  all  of  his 
successors.  It  was  at  Naples  that  Augustus  was  joined  bj 
Virgil  for  a  voyage  to  Greece.  It  was  at  a  villa  on  the 
opposite  shore  that  Hadrian  starved  himself  to  death  in  his 


LETTERS   FBOM  ABROAD.  451 

last  illness ;  and  far  down  on  the  point  of  land  to  the  left  is 
the  spot  where  Tiberius  was  suffocated,  when  the  world  could 
no  longer  endure  his  wickedness.  Crassus,  Cato,  LucuUus, 
Pompey,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Scipio  Africanus,  Pliny,  Virgil, 
Horace,  —  the  names  of  all  of  them  are  associated  with  the 
coast  opposite,  and  especially  with  that  part  far  down  on  the 
left,  where  the  houses  are  so  distinctly  seen  along  the  edge 
of  the  water.  Though  indeed  there  are  there  now  no  long- 
er such  villas  as  those  which  Horace  saw,  built  of  marble 
and  founded  in  the  sea,  — 

*'  Gleaming  on  Baiae's  golden  shore, 
Yon  marble  domes  their  sunny  wings  expand. 
And  glittering  yillas  crown  the  yellow  strand/' 

BaiaB  no  doubt  had  a  bad  name  in  some  respects,  and  just- 
ly. And  in  its  neighborhood  are  places  notorious  for  the 
deeds  of  Tiberius  and  Nero,  and  others  not  unlike  them. 
Yet  still,  across  this  beautiful  bay,  how  the  land  yonder  seems 
like  Elysian  fields,  and  as  though  peopled,  not  with  the  names 
only,  but  almost  with  the  shadowy  forms  of  the  great  old 
heathen,  whose  favorite  haunt  it  was !  And  all  along  that 
coast  scarcely  is  there  a  place  but  is  glorious  with  the  past, 
as  having  witnessed  the  walk  of  heroes  and  the  meditation 
of  philosophers,  or  as  having  been  made  immortal  by  a  poet's 
mention.  Close  by  Naples,  at  Pausilippo,  is  the  place  where 
Virgil  lived  and  where  most  of  his  works  were  composed. 
Lucrinus,  Avemus,  Cumse,  Misenum,  Vesuvius,  Prochyta, — 
with  all  these  Virgil  is  associated  for  ever  by  his  poetry.  At 
Misenum  was  a  villa  which  belonged  to  Augustus,  and  in 
which  Virgil  read  from  his  -Sineid  those  beautiful  lines  in 
which  he  speaks  of  the  Emperor's  nephew,  —  words  which 
are  said  to  have  very  deeply  moved  the  bereaved  mother, 
and  to  have  been  rewarded  by  her  in  a  princely  manner. 
And  fresh  from  the  heart  of  the  poet,  and  quivering  with  his 


452  LETTERS   FROM  ABROAD. 

own  utterance,  they  must  indeed  have  sounded  most  ten- 
derly and  nobly,  — 

<(  No  youth  shall  equal  hopes  of  glory  give ; 
No  youth  afford  so  gpreat  a  cause  to  grieye. 
The  Trojan  honor  and  the  Boman  boast. 
Admired  when  livmg,  and  adored  when  lost! 
Mirror  of  ancient  faith  in  early  youth ! 
Undaunted  worth,  inviolable  truth ! " 

Not  far  from  Virgil's  own  house  was  the  residence  of  Pol- 
lio,  the  ruins  of  which  are  still  Tisible ;  and  indeed  they  are 
like  the  remains  of  a  city  for  extent  and  grandeur.  It  was 
to  his  neighbor  PoUio  that  Virgil  addressed  that  ode,  which) 
in  the  Mid^e  Ages,  was  regarded  as  having  been  predictive 
of  the  birth\f  Jesus,  and  which  certainly  sounds  as  though 
it  had  been  composed  by  the  poet  after  having  been  enrap* 
tured  with  the  perusal  of  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel.  This  ode  is 
so  unlike  anything  else  in  Latin  poetry,  and  has  in  it  a  some- 
thing so  very  spiritual,  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  Virgil  was 
thought  to  have  been  momentarily  visited  by  that  same  in- 
spiration with  which  the  minds  of  the  prophets  were  moved. 

'*The  son  shall  lead  the  life  of  gods,  and  be 
By  gods  and  heroes  seen,  and  gods  and  heroes  see ; 
The  jarring  nations  he  in  peace  shall  bind. 
And  with  paternal  virtues  rule  mankind. 
Unbidden  earth  shall  wreathing  ivy  bring. 
And  fragrant  herbs,  —  the  promises  of  Spring, 
As  her  first  offerings  to  her  infant  king." 

Often  here,  as  I  see  a  goat  climbing  the  rocks,  or  notice 
the  bees  among  the  flowers,  or  behold  the  peasants  at  woik 
gathering  chestnuts,  pruning  their  vines,  or  ploughing  uDde^ 
neath  their  olive-trees,  I  think  of  Virgil,  and  of  how  there 
was  one  eye  which  had  witnessed  the  brazen  glare  and  the 
golden  glories  of  Rome,  and  not  been  blinded  for  the  waji 


LETTEBS   FROM   ABBOAD.  458 

the  conntrj,  for  the  seasons  in  their  beauty,  and  for  dumb 
matures  in  their  power  to  interest.    It  was  happiness  after 
own  heart,  which  he  described  in  these  lines,  in  the  sec- 
i  book  of  the  Georgics :  — 

"  How  blest  the  sage,  whose  soul  can  pierce  each  cause 
Of  changefal  Nature  and  her  wondrous  laws. 
Who  tramples  far  beneath  his  foot  and  braves 
Fate  and  stem  death  and  hell's  resounding  waves. 
Blest,  too,  who  knows  each  god  that  guards  the  swain. 
Pan,  old  Sjlvanns^  and  the  Dryad  train/' 

And  in  these  lines  how  one  is  made  to  feel  the  tranquillity 
1  the  peace  of  the  country :  — 

•**  The  peasant  yearly  ploughs  his  native  soil. 
The  lands  that  blest  his  father  bound  bis  toil, 
Sustain  his  herd,  his  country's  wealth  increase. 
And  see  his  children's  children  sport  in  peace. 
Each  change  of  season  leads  new  plenty  round. 
Now  lambs  and  kids  along  the  meadows  bound ; 
Now  every  furrow  loads  with  com  the  plain. 
Fruits  bend  the  bough,  and  gamers  burst  with  grain." 

^d  this  reference  to  Rome  seems  to  gain  such  a  fresh 
Euiing  when  read  here  in  Italy :  — 

"  Such  was  the  life  that  ancient  Sabines  chose ; 
Thus  Rome's  twin  founders,  thus  Etruria  rose, 
Thus  Rome  herself,  o'er  all  on  earth  renowned,  — 
Rome,  whose  seven  hills  her  towering  walls  surround." 

Fust  where  Naples  seems  to  adjoin  a  steep  hill-side,  and 
sre,  indeed,  the  hill  is  pierced  by  an  ancient  tunnel,  is 
sit  is  called  the  tomb  of  Virgil.  Tradition  asserts  it  to 
such,  and  it  does  stand  in  the  very  locality  in  which  it  is 
tain  that  the  ashes  of  the  poet  were  placed. 
3ut  Sorrento  has  its  own  memories  and  honors.  Augus- 
sought  the  place  for  its  wholesome  air.     Ovid  makes 


€ 


454  LETTERS  FBOM  ABROAB. 

mention  of  its  hills.  Horace  praises  its  wine ;  and  so  does 
MartiaL  And  Statius  praises  its  beautiful  situation.  And 
then,  too,  it  is  the  birthplace  of  Tasso.  Indeed,  it  was  in 
the  house  next  to  this  that  the  poet  was  bom.  And  it  was 
there  he  lived  till  he  was  eleven  jears  of  age.  Often  I 
think  of  him  as  playing  on  the  beach  below  the  house,  a  tall 
boy  and  very  meditative,  though  as  yet  his  thoughts  have 
not  turned  towards  Jerusalem,  and  those  narratives  of  war 
and  love  which  have  made  his  sad  name  so  popular.  To 
Sorrento,  too,  and  the  house  in  which  he  was  bom,  the  poet 
came  after  his  escape  from  prison. 

The  native  place  of  Tasso !  And  surely  in  some  respects 
never  was  a  poet  bom  in  a  more  appropriate  scene  than 
this  place  of  ancient  memories,  —  of  air  so  soft  and  sweet,— 
of  beauty  on  land  and  water,  —  of  orange-groves  and  olive- 
yards,  —  and  of  flowers  and  plants,  such  as  open  their  blos- 
soms only  to  the  sirocco.  In  the  Jerusalem  Delivered,  there 
is  a  stanza  in  the  reading  of  which  I  seem  to  feel  the  air  of 
Sorrento :  — 

"  She  ceased ;  and  as  approying  all  she  spoke, 

The  choir  of  birds  their  heayenly  tunes  renew. 
The  turtles  sighed,  and  sighs  with  kisses  broke ; 

The  fowls  to  shades  unseen  by  pairs  withdrew. 
It  seemed  the  laurel  chaste  and  stobbom  oak, 

And  all  the  gentle  trees  on  earth  that  grew,  — 
It  seemed  the  land,  the  sea,  and  heaven  above,  — 

All  breathed  out  fimcy  sweet  and  sighed  out  love." 

And  now  for  the  last  words  of  this  letter.  Yesterday, 
suddenly  I  bethought  myself,  "  What  are  we  staying  here 
for  ?  why  are  we  delaying  in  this  little  place,  while  yonder 
is  Naples?"  Soon  the  air  grew  much  cooler;  and  I  felt 
myself  longing  for  exercise.  The  wind  had  changed.  B 
was  no  longer  the  sirocco,  —  the  wind  of  the  last  three  weeks, 
—  the  wind  from  Africa,  —  the  breeze  from  off  the  aleot 


LETTERS   FBOM  ABROAD.  455 

deserts,  —  lazj  air  from  among  date-plants,  and  from  among 
the  leaves  of  the  palm-trees. 

Now  that  I  am  leaving  it,  I  find  that  I  have  grown  to  be 
much  attached  to  this  place, — to  the  queer  city  and  its  beau- 
tiful views,  —  to  the  tinkling  of  the  bells  of  church  and  con- 
vent, which  seems  hardly  ever  to  stop, —  to  the  little  garden 
here,  where  the  leaves  are  so  green  and  the  oranges  so  yel- 
low, —  and  to  the  little  chapel  of  Maria,  the  Star  of  the  Sea, 
in  honor  of  whom  all  through  the  hours  of  one  Saturday 
night  there  was  the  jingling  of  a  bell,  and  the  incessant  fir- 
ing of  a  whole  park  of  little  cannons. 

And  there  are  not  a  few  of  the  people,  too,  whom  I  shall 
remember,  —  the  landlords,  who  seem  always  to  be  very  busy 
in  a  quiet  way,  —  the  nun  in  ill  health,  who  is  staying  at  the 
house  with  her  brothers,  —  the  beggars,  who  are  all  so  very 
poor  and  so  very  patient,  —  and  the  friars,  some  one  or  two 
of  whom  are  always  about  the  house,  sometimes  eating, 
sometimes  begging,  and  sometimes  helping  to  make  pickles. 
There  is  one  friar  whom  I  shall  specially  remember,  —  Fra 
Diaco.  He  is  highly  spoken  of  for  zeal  on  behalf  of  the 
poor.  He  and  I  have  become  great  friends.  He  has  in- 
vited me  to  his  convent.  Every  morning  we  have  had  great 
demonstrations  towards  one  another.  And  from  him  I  have 
had  very  free  communications  of  some  character  or  other, 
though  exactly  of  what  nature  I  cannot  teU.  For  it  has 
been  only  now  and  then  that  I  have  been  able  to  discern  at 
all  the  drift  of  his  very  voluble  discourse.  But  yet  in  some 
way  or  other  we  have  been  in  spiritual  communion  together: 
at  least  I  have  felt  as  though  we  had  been ;  and  I  feel  as 
though  the  friar  himself  thought  so  too.  Yesterday  he 
pleaded  to  me  on  behalf  of  the  poor,  because  it  was  All- 
Saints'  day ;  and  now  in  a  few  minutes  I  know  that  he  will 
be  appealing  to  me  again  in  the  orange-walk,  because  to-day 
of  its  being  All-Souls'  day ! 


# 


456  MOTIYBB  TO  BELIOIOK. 

All-Souls'  day!  All  soals,  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
heathen  and  Christian,  —  souls  straggling  with  the  tempta- 
tions and  sorrows  of  this  morning,  and  souls  that  sinned  be- 
fore the  day-spring  from  on  high  had  reached  mankind,— 
the  soul  of  the  philosopher  reaching  after  God  as  the  great 
want  of  his  nature  and  the  great  need  of  the  world, — the 
soul  of  the  poet  trembling  often  with  influences  from  a  world 
invisible,  —  and  mj  own  soul,  in  what  it  is  and  in  what  sor- 
rowfully it  fails  of  being,  —  all  souls !  There  is  one  day  in 
the  year  for  their  remembrance  together ;  and  there  is  one 
text  at  least  in  the  Bible  in  which  they  are  all  assembled 
together  like  a  great  family.  ^Behold,"  says  Grod,  ^  behold, 
all  souls  are  mine." 


Motives  to  Religion. — Tell  men  that  salvation  is  per- 
sonal happiness,  and  damnation  personal  misery,  and  that 
goodness  consists  in  seeking  the  one  and  avoiding  the  other, 
and  you  will  get  religionists;  but  poor,  stunted,  dwarfish,— 
asking,  with  painful  self-consciousness,  Am  I  saved  ?  Am  I 
lost?  Prudential  considerations  about  a  distant  happiness^ 
conflicting  with  passionate  impulses  to  secure  a  near  and 
present  one ;  men  moving  in  shackles,  —  '^  letting  I  dare  not 
wait  upon  I  would." 

Tell  men  that  Grod  is  Love ;  that  right  is  right,  and  wroD^ 
wrong ;  let  them  cease  to  admire  philanthropy,  and  begin  to 
love  men ;  cease  to  pant  for  heaven,  and  begin  to  love  God: 
then  the  spirit  of  liberty  begins.  —  Frederick  W,  ^bertm'i 
Sermons, 


ANNIYEBSABT   OF  THE  ASSOCIATION.  457 


THE   TfflRTY-THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 

The  Thirty-third  Anniversary  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association  was  celebrated  on  Tuesday,  May  25, 1858,  in  the 

« 

Bedford  Street  Church  in  Boston.  Long  before  the  hour 
appointed  for  the  opening  of  the  meeting  the  house  was  filled 
to  its  utmost  capacity,  the  aisles,  stairways,  pulpit,  and  every 
standing-place  were  occupied  by  an  assembly  as  densely 
packed  as  was  possible,  and  thousands  went  away  unable  to 
obtain  admission. 

At  half  past  nine  o'clock  the  chair  was  taken  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Lothrop,  President  of  the  Association,  and  an  appropriate 
and  touching  prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson  of 
Salem. 

The  President  congratulated  the  large  audience  upon  the 

cheering  circumstances  under  which  they  had  come  together. 

He  saw  in  that  multitude  of  beaming  faces  an  intimation  of 

the  wide  sympathy  that  was  felt  in  the  progress  of  the  vital 

and  mighty  ideas  which  Christianity,  as  we  interpret  it, 

represents.     To  the  remark  so  often  made  relating  to  our 

gmall  growth  as  a  denomination,  he  opposed  the  fact  of  our 

large  success  as  an  influence,  and  believed  that  no  other  sec- 

*.  tion  of  the  Church  in  all  Christendom  could  point  to  more 

signal  growth.    And  who,  under  God,  has  achieved  this  suc- 

~    eess  ?    What  a  small  band  of  believers  it  was,  beginning 

1   with  Mayhew,  Freeman,  and  Buckminster,  and  including 

J-  such  men  as  Thayer  and  Bancroft  and  Abbot,  the  Wares  and 

.1   Peabodies  and  Greenwood !  and  how  shopt  is  the  period  of 

time  in  which  their  living  and  fresh  ideas  have  been  at  work 

in  this  community !     The  clergyman  who  gave  the  Right 

VOL.  V.  NO.  IV.  39 


45S  THIBTT-THIRD   AHHmBBSABT  OV  THS 

Hand  of  Fellowship  to  Backminster  is  still  living,  and  Back- 
minster  himself,  had  he  sarvived  to  this  time,  woald  have 
reached  bat  little  more  than  the  time  often  allotted  to  old  age. 
It  is  not  too  mach  to  say  that  onr  ill  saocess  as  a  denomination 
has  been  owing  to  our  complete  success  as  an  influence,  and 
in  this  defeat  which  is  victory  we  have  every  reason  to  re- 
joice. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Association  then  read  the  records 
of  the  last  Annual  Meeting,  and  the  Treasurer  presented  his 
Annual  Report 

TREASURER'S  REPORT. 
Bbcbipts. 

To  Cash,  Balance  of  Account,     .        .         .         $1,957.88 
«        for  MeadvUle  School,        .     $117.08 
<<  «  Madras  Mission,      .         .       46.00 

**         **  Calcutta       «  .        208.25 

«  «   Kansas        <*  .        .       70.00 

«         «  Perry,  Me.,         .        .  46.00 

.  ''        from  Scattered  Subscribers  to  the 

Quarterly  Journal,        .        705.02 
<'        from  Sales  of  Books,     .  2,863.49 

«  for  Book  Fund,  .  .  186.33 
'<  from  Interest  on  Investment,  430.00 
"  «  «  Graham  Fund,  615.25 

Auxiliaries,  .  3,898.05 

Borrowed  Money,    .      4,000.00 

Life-Members,      .        .     217.00 

$13,402.47 

$  15,360.35 


A3CEBI0AN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  459 

EXPENDITUKES. 

By  Cash  paid  to  Feeble  Societies,  $288.00 
"  "    Expenses,         .         .      1,829.97 

"  "     Publishing  Books  and 

Journal,  .  .  3,138.69 
"  "     Kansas  Mission,  .         .     600.00 

"  "     Salaries,  .        .         .      2,437.50 

«  «     Kansas  Church,  .         .  1,387.75 

"  «     Calcutta  Mission,       .      1,874.30 

"  "    for  Mr.  Nute  (a  small 

sum  left),  .        .       12.00 

'<  «    Antioch  College,        .        250.00 


$11,818.21 

By  Cash  loaned  Antioch  College,       .         .         .     2,000.00 
Balance  to  new  Account,     .        .        .         1,542.14 


$  15,360.35 


Er.  Ex. 

Calvin  W.  Clabk,  Treasurer. 

Boston,  May  26,  1858. 

The  above  Report  was  referred  to  the  Auditor  of  last  year, 
Hon.  Henry  B.  Rogers. 

The  foUovring  persons,  nominated  from  the  floor,  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  report  a  list  of  officers  to  be  elected 
at  this  meeting  at  half  past  one  o'clock,  viz. :  Rev.  Messrs. 
A.  Hill,  A.  B.  Fuller,  C.  Stetson,  H.  F.  Harrington,  and 
Au  P^  Putnam. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Association  then  pre- 
sented, through  their  Secretary,  the  following  Report. 


460  THIBTT-THIBI>  ASNJYViBBAXT   OF  THE 

REPORT. 

A  brief  view  of  the  operati(»is  of  the  Association,  doriBg 
the  past  year,  maybe  presented  under  the  two  heads  of 
Publications  and  Missions. 

The  following  new  works  have  been  printed:  Athana- 
iia^  or  Foregleams  of  LnmoriaiUiiy^  of  which  three  thonsand 
<$opies  have  been  published  in  five  months ;  Seven  Stormi 
Sundaysy  issued  only  a  few  weeks  ago ;  and  Studies  in  Chris- 
tianity^ or  Timely  Thoughts  for  ReUgious  Thinkers^  by  Pro- 
fessor James  Martineau,  just  out  from  the  pt^ss,  of  which 
fifteen  hundred  copies  have  been  printed,  —  one  thousand 
having  been  ordered  for  the  English  market.  The  two 
former  books  are  a  part  of  the  series  entitled  Devotiond 
Library^  now  comprising  six  volumes ;  the  last-named  book 
belongs  to  the  Theological  lAlraryy  of  which  series  five  vd- 
umes  have  been  published. 

Besides  the  above  new  works,  the  Association  has  issued 
during  the  past  twelve  months  new  editions  of  the  follow- 
ing works,  first  published  in  former  years :  The  Rod  and 
the  Staff,  a  third  edition ;  The  Gospel  Narratives,  the  ninth 
thousand;  The  Discipline  of  Sorrow,  two  editions,  the  third 
and  fourth ;  The  Harp  and  the  Cross,  the  second  edition,  a 
thousand  copies ;  and  The  Altar  at  Home,  the  ninth  edition, 
a  thousand  copies.  Thus  it  appears  that  there  have  been 
issued,  since  our  last  anniversary,  twelve  editions  of  books, 
making  nine  thousand  five  hundred  volumes. 

The  regular  quarterly  issue  of  the  Journal  has  been  con- 
tinued, as  has  the  annual  issue  of  the  Year-Book.  Of  both, 
thirty-four  thousand  copies  have  been  published.  The  total 
amount  of  our  printing  the  past  year  has  been  seven  mil- 
lions of  pages,  —  an  increase  of  half  a  million  above  that  of 
the  year  before. 


iLMEBICA^  UKSTABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  461 

The  Committee  have  other  works  in  advanced  stages  of 
preparation,  some  of  which  would  have  been  put  to  press 
before  this  date,  if  business  had  not  been  paralyzed  during 
the  last  six-  months.     Among  these  we  may  mention  The 
Christianity  of  the  First  Three  CenturieSy  by  Rev.  Dr.  Lam- 
son;  An  Introduction  to  the  New  Testamentyhj  Rev.  James 
Freeman  Clarke;  and  A  Commentary  on  the  whole  New 
Testament^  by   Rev.  John  H.  Morison  and  Rev.  Dr.  A. 
-P.  Peabody.       The   Committee  need  not  say  that  these 
learned  and  valuable  works  will  greatly  enrich  our  already 
extensive  list  of  publications.     They  will  only  express  their 
regret  that  the  issue  of  one  of  th^n  —  the  Commentary  — 
has  been  so  long  delayed.     The  result  has  been  from  causes 
which  the  Committee  could  not  control.     It  is  not  doubted 
.   -that  the  work  will  be  all  the  more  worthy  of  confidence  and 
V    patronage  in  consequence  of  its  prolonged  preparation. 

The  Committee  would  be  unjust  to  their  convictions  if 

I    they  <Mnitted  to  say  that  the  experience  of  another  year  has 

J    strengthened  their  confidence  in  the  manifest  utility  of  this 

^epiartment  of  their  labors.     Widely  throughout  our  country, 

as  has  been  said  in  a  former  Report,  are  the  Rooms  of  the 

Ajssociation  known  as  a  central  depot  where  may  be  obtained 

works  illustrative  of  a  liberal  and  liberalizing  theology.  The 

correspondence  is  already  great,  and  every  year  it  becomes 
greater,  from  individual  inquirers  of  various  denominations, 
and  small  societies  unable  as  yet  to  support  ministers,  asking 
fi>r  our  tracts  and  books ;  and  the  Committee  cannot  doubt 
that  among  the  causes  of  an  improved  tone  of  thought  on  the 
Babject  of  religion,  no  inconsiderable  influence  is  to  be  as- 
cribed to  a  wide  distribution  of  our  publications. 

Upon  the  diaracter  of  our  books  a  criticism  has  been  made 
which  the  Committee  apprehend  to  be  just  It  is  objected 
that  they  are  all  on  one  level  of  thought,  and  that  the  whole 

39* 


# 

468  xHonrr^^THiSD  AMMiVKEaAXX  or  the 

series  is  deficient  in  smaller,  more  plainlj  written  publica- 
tions, setting  forth  with  deamess  and  emphasis  our  distine- 
tive  theology,  and  thus  commending  the  truth  to  a  larger  CI^ 
cle  of  minds.  This  is  a  point  upon  which  much-  thought  has 
been  bestowed  by  the  Committee,  who  are  not  without  hopes 
of  being  able  to  meet  the  want  here  named.  Upon  the  whole, 
thej  unanimously  recommend  a  continued  and  wise  care  of 
this  entire  branch  of  the  Association's  plans,  till  a  depart- 
ment, now  in  its  in&ncj,  shall  grow  up  to  the  large  impor- 
tance which  it  may  reach  in  a  few  years. 

For  the  circulation  of  our  publications  in  England  oppo^ 
tunities  have  been  opened  to  an  extent  &r  surpassing  any 
ezpectatiims.  Some  of  our  books  have  been  adopted  in  a 
series  now  publishing  there;  subscribers  to  our  Joanud 
have  been  obtidned  through  our  agent ;  and  the  tracts  for- 
merly issued  by  the  Association,  and  which,  as  they  are  ste- 
reotyped, we  can  now  supply  in  any  numbers,  have  met  with 
special  favor  among  oiir  English  brethren.  Of  these  tracts 
nearly  fifteen  thousand  copies  have  been  lately  forwarded  to 
England,  having  been  ordered  by  our  agent.  Besides  these 
we  have  sent  there  two  thousand  and  three  hundred  volumes 
of  our  books.  In  exchange  we  have  received  several  hi^j 
valuable  English  works,  which  we  can  furnish  at  a  reduced 
price.  The  Committee  look  upcm  this  interchange  of  liter- 
ature as  an  encouraging  feature  in  our  history,  and  they  re- 
joice in  the  many  signs  which  prove  that  it  may  be  greatlj 
extended. 

In  its  missionary  operations  the  Association  has  met  with 
a  loss  during  the  past  year  by  the  death  of  Rev.  Joseph  C 
Smith,  who  died  at  Honolulu,  the  29th  of  last  December. 
Through  feeble  health  he  was  unable  to  enter  upcm  the  la- 
bors in  which  he  hoped  he  might  render  some  service;  bot 
his  sickness  and  decline^  his  resignation  and  trust,  the  tri- 


N 


AMERICAN   ITKITABIAN  ASSOOIATIOK;  463 

mnphs  of  his  Christian  faith  and  love,  deeplj  affected  a  wide 
drde  of  friends,  and  have  yet  more  prepared  the  way  for 
the  gathering  at  that  place  of  a  prosperous  society.  From 
all  the  information  received,  it  is  not  doubted  that  this  is  one 
of  the  posts  which  we  are  urgently  invited  to  occupy,  and  it 
IB  hoped  that  the  means  and  the  man  will  erelong  be  sup- 
plied. 

Ckmstant  religious  services  are  kept  up  in  the  Mission 
Church  in  Lawrence,  Kansas,  under  the  direction  of  our 
brave  and  earnest  brother,  Rev.  Ephraim  Nute,  Jr.     The 
large  and  beautiftil  school-room  in  the  basement  of  the 
church  affords  educational  accommodations  far  surpassing 
any  other  in  Kansas ;  and  Mr.  Nute's  congregation,  Sunday 
8<diool,  and  religious  meetings  attest  the  general  prosperity 
of  the  cause  he  there  upholds.    Nor  is  it  in  Lawrence  alone 
^tiiat  his  influence  is  felt.    He  is  invited  to  lecture  and  preach 
in  settlements  around  that  place,  and  by  the  distribution  of 
books  and  tracts  in  remoter  towns  he  is  strengthening  the 
interests  of  a  free  and  generous  Gospel  throughout  that  re- 
gion.    Proposals  for  the  sale  of  the  Lawrence  Church  to 
the  religious  society  there  worshipping,  have  been  received 
and  accepted  by  the  Executive  Committee ;  but  the  Board 
has  not  yet  received  knowledge  that  the  legal  papers  have 
been  executed.    It  was  stated  that  one  obvious  effect  of  this 
transfer  would  be  to  increase  the  interest  which  ouv  friends 
in  Lawrence  ii^ould  feel  in  the  prosperity  of  Liberal  Chris- 
tianity, as  they  would  naturally  do  more  for  a  church  and 
society  the  sole  ownership  and  care  of  which  rested  in  their 
own  hands.    By  this  arrangement  the  sum  of  five  thousand 
dollars  will  be  received,  of  which  three  thousand  dollars 
xpust  be  appropriated  towards  building  up  other  societies  in 
Kansas,  according  to  the  condition  upon  which  subscriptions 
to  that  amount  were  obtained. 


464  THiBTT-rrHiBD  AmnyxR&UBT  or  the 

From  our  missionarjr  in  Cakatta  we  hear  regulaiiy  every 
fortnight,  bj  every  India  steamer,  and  not  infrequently  we 
have  letters  from  others  there,  carefal  obaervers  of  the  woik 
in  which  he  is  engaged.  The  Committee  feel  that  they  know 
aboat  as  much  of  the  number  of  his  oongr^ation,  Sunday 
school,  Bible  class,  and  inqnirers  at  his  rooms, — of  his  la- 
bors in  visiting  from  house  to  house,  examining  schools,  writ- 
ing for  the  press,  learning  the  native  langiu^e,  and  distribut- 
ing books  and  tracts, — as  they  ordinarily  would  if  his  resi- 
dence was  only  thirty  miles  from  this  city. 

A  chance  traveller  through  Boston,  who  on  some  Sunday 
afternoon  should  enter  one  of  our  churches,  and  observe  the 
very  small  number  of  worshippers,  would  draw  a  wholly 
unwarranted  conclusion  if  he  should  infer  that  the  minister 
is  doing  but  little  good.  Besides  this  outside  view  of  that 
minister's  life^  there  is  an  inside  view  which  our  traveller 
should  have  if  he  would  know  the  extent  of  that  minister's 
influence.  He  must  follow  him  in  his  daily  walks,  see  the 
number  of  people  he  is  brought  in  contact  with,  and  whom 
he  influences  in  various  methods,  by  familiar  intercourse, 
private  persuasion,  in  the  house  and  by  the  way,  —  the  old 
and  the  young,  the  well  and  the  sick,  —  those  thousand-fold 
offices  of  faith  and  love  handed  down  firom  Him  '^  who  went 
about  doing  good,"  only  a  small  part  of  which  we  see  when 
he  is  addressing  his  congregation  in  public. 

When  rumors  are  circulated  that  our  missionary  in  Calr 
cutta  has  only  twenty  or  thirty  hearers  on  Sunday,  the  Com- 
mittee feel  that  this  is  only  the  outside  view  of  his  mission 
life.  There  is  an  inside  view  of  it.  We  should  have  been 
signally  remiss  and  blameworthy  if  we  had  failed  to  obtain 
it.  Even  in  the  matter  of  attendance  upon  public  worship, 
we  do  not  know  the  other  missionary  in  India,  of  anj 
denomination,  under  any  circumstances,  who,  in  the  short 


AMEBICAN  UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATIOIf.  465 

space  of  three  years,  has  succeeded  in  attaching  to  him- 
self so  many  native  attendants  upon  his  preaching  as  has  the 
missionary  of  this  Association.  His  life  in  Calcutta  has  not 
been  without  opposition.  Any  one  who  throws  himself  into 
an  unpopular  cause  with  like  enthusiasm  must  expect  oppo- 
nents. To  the  Committee  this  good  has  come  from  his  ene- 
mies,  —  we  have  heard  what  they  have  said  about  him. 
And  when  we  have  seen  them  testify,  as  we  have,  to  the 
purity  of  his  life,  to  the  untiring  diligence  of  his  service,  to 
a  gentle,  winning  zeal  that  everywhere  makes  itself  felt,  and 
to  a  success  which  has  attracted  the  notice  even  of  indiffer- 
ent observers,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  there  was  truth  in 
what  a  Massachusetts  layman  of  a  neighboring  city  wrote 
the  other  day.  ^  J£  the  Unitarian '  denomination,"  said  he, 
^'  does  not  give  to  Mr.  Dall  a  prompt  and  sufficient  support, 
it  wiU  be  signally  wanting  in  what  it  owes  to  the  claims  of 
a  pure  Gk)spel,  —  not  to  say  a  true  humanity." 

A  native  East  Indian,  a  young  man,  Jogut  by  name,  the 
writer  of  the  Ettle  historical  tract  called  "  Juddoo,"  recently 
published  in  the  Quarterly  Journal,  is  now  on  his  way  from 
Calcutta  to  Boston.  He  is  one  of  our  mission  disciples,  and 
has  been  selected,  under  the  advice  of  gentlemen  in  Calcutta, 
as  a  person  the  best  fitted  to  receive  an  education  in  Amer- 
ica, with  a  view  to  his  return,  after  two  or  three  years,  to 
labor  for  regenerated  India.  The  service  he  may  hereafter 
render  as  a  mere  translator  will  be  of  the  highest  importance. 
By  the  establishment  throughout  Hindostan  of  government 
schools,  the  slumbering  intellect  of  Asia  has  been  awakened, 
and  it  now  craves  mental  food.  The  number  of  books  annu- 
ally translated  into  Asiatic  languages  is  almost  incredibly 
large.  No  small  part  of  them,  it  is  true,  are  elementary 
educational  works ;  but  immense  numbers,  of  sceptical  and 
infidel  publications  are  poured  through  a  country  poorly 


466  THIBTT-THIBB  AHNITEB8ABT  OF  THE 

supplied  as  yet  with  books  explaining,  defending,  and  enfcnv 
cing  the  Christian  Scriptures  and  religion.  In  this  state  of 
things  one  of  the  most  pressing  wants  is  that  of  an  educated 
native,  cotiapetent,  by  familiarity  with  our  life  and  spirit,  to 
translate  our  religious  literature  into  the  tongues  used  by  bis 
countrymen.  A  training  of  two  or  three  years  in  America 
will  enable  Jogut  to  spread  the  contents  of  our  books  before 
thousands  6f  readers  in  India. 

The  expense  of  his  outfit  and  voyage  was  borne  by  a  friend 
of  our  mission  in  Calcutta ;  his  support  and  educadcm  In  this 
country  will  be  somehow  provided  for  by  the  AssocialioiL 
A  letter  from  Calcutta  says:  ^  Jogut  is  a  dark-skinned,  dif- 
fident man,  and  has  very  little  in  his  appearance  that  is  pre- 
possessing ;  we  have  reason  to  believe,  however,  tiiat  he  is  j 
above  the  average  of  his  countrymen  in  stability  of  charac- 
ter, and  we  think  he  is  a  good  man.  We  hope  he  will  prove,'' 
it  is  added,  ^  a  living  epistle  from  Asia  to  A&ierica,  that  will 
not  be  read  in  vain." 

Jogut  sailed  from  Calcutta  the  2l8t  of  last  January,  and 
may  soon  be  expected  in  Boston.  He  is  well  instructed 
in  the  English  language,  which  he  speaks  and  writes  with 
much  correctness,  and  seems  to  be  possessed  with  a  profound 
and  earnest  Christian  faith.  Is  there  not  among  us  some 
man,  or  some  company  of  three  or  four  men,  who  will  as- 
sume the  expense  of  the  education  of  this  young  convert 
from  Hindoo  idolatry  ? 

The  Committee  have  alluded  to  the  hope  of  Jogut's  future 
return  to  India  as  a  co-laborer  in  our  mission  there.  This 
may  be,  as  we  have  said, -two  or  three  years  hence.  The 
inquiry  may  arise.  What  may  be  the  condition  of  our  mis- 
sion at  that  time  ?  Will  our  missionary  be  in  Calcutta  then, 
to  need  the  assistance  of  this  young  fellow-helper  ? 

On  this  point  the  Committee  would  quote  a  few  lines  from 


AMEBICAN  UKITABIAK  ASSOCIATION.  467 

one  of  the  late  letters  of  our  missionary,  '^  A  birthday  just 
passed,"  says  he,  "put  me  lately  at  the  entrance  of  my  forty- 
third  year  of  life  on  earth.  For  aught  that  appears,  there 
may  be  forty  years  more  in  store  for  me.  Should  it  be  so, 
do  I  now  feel  ready  to  devote  aU  that  term  of  life  to  India, 
if  such  should  appear  to  be  God's  will  ?  Yes,  God  help  me, 
I  am  ready  to  give  all  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  India.  I 
have  deeply  pondered  the  question.  I  am  well  aware  that 
it  will  make  a  great  difference  in  the  confidence  of  such  as 
wish  to  see  a  permanent  mission  in  India,  to  know  whether 
it  is  a  work  that  wearies  on  one's  hands  or  not.  K  any  ask 
you,  '  Is  this  man  willing  to  give  his  whole  life  to  India  ? ' 
tell  them  yes,  he  is  willing  if  God  and  man  approve.  Say 
at  least  that  there  is  no  probability  of  any  sudden  check  or 
sudden  destruction  overtaking  the  mission.  All  points  to 
permanency.  With  abstemious  habits  the  climate  is  as  good 
for  mission  work  as  any  climate  in  the  world.  Ten  or  fif- 
teen years  of  it  may  tell  seriously  on  a  Western  constitution ; 
but  to  one  bom  in  the  sunny  South  of  our  Union,  and  then 
fairly  acclimated  in  Bengal,  the  air  is  as  healthful  as  any  air 
need  to  be.  As  a  mission  field  for  our  true  and  holy  faith, 
for  any  man's  faith  who  will  say  with  St.  Paul, '  To  us  there 
is  but  one  God,  the  Father,  and  one  Mediator  between  God 
and  man,  the  man  Jesus  Christ,'  there  is  at  this  time  no 
place  like  it  on  the  earth.  The  revolution  of  the  present 
century  is  not  being  accomplished  in  Europe,  nor  America, 
nor  Africa,  but  here  in  Asia.  Here  meet  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  The  extremes  of  the  world's  religious  development, 
as  well  as  of  its  civil  progress,  are  here  meeting  for  a  life 
and  death  struggle  on  the  plains  of  India  and  of  China.  The 
fate  present  and  to  come  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  men 
hangs  on  the  decision  of  a  conflict  which  the  next  quarter  of 
a  century  is  to  witness  mainly  in  Hindostan.     '  Wherever 


468  THIBTT-THIBD  ▲NNIYEBSABT   OF  THE 

there  is  a  fight  I  want  to  be  in  it,'  said  our  friend.  Father 
Taylor,  at  the  table  of  Bev.  William  G.  Eliot,  in  St  Louis, 
in  1841.  It  was  the  'good  fight'  of  which  thej  were 
speaking ;  and  from  that  hoar  I  wanted  '  to  be  in  it '  more 
than  ever  before*  Happy  —  I  repeat  it  —  is  the  man  who, 
being  a  Christian,  and  having  Christian  objects  at  heart, 
hears  and  answers  the  call  of  Grod  to  spend  the  oomiog 
quarter  of  a  century  in  Asia.  Such  a  man  may  almost  hear 
the  Father  of  spirits  speaking  to  him,  as  to  his  Lord  and 
Master,  and  saying,  'Come,  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen 
for  thine  inheritance,  if  thou  wilt  take  them  wisely  and  lov- 
ingly to  heart' " 

The  Committee,  having  now  presented  what  they  had  to 
offer  on  the  subjects  of  our  publicaUons  and  missions,  will 
conclude  their  Report  with  a  bare  reference  to  one  or  two 
other  points. 

At  the  last  anniversary  the  sympathies  of  the  ALSsodation 
were  awakened  in  behalf  of  our  Christian  brethren  in  Tran- 
sylvania, upon  whom  heavy  burdens  had  been  imposed  by 
Austrian  oppression.    It  was  then  understood  that  the  Com- 
mittee would  make  an  appeal  to  our  churches,  asking  them 
to  follow  the  example  of  fiiends  in  England,  and  contribute 
a  sum  towards  preventing  the  educational  institutions  of  our 
Transylvanian  brethren  from  being  wrested  from  their  hands. 
Immediately  after  the  last  anniversary  the  attention  of  the 
Board  was  directed  to  this  subject.     A  circular  was  drawn 
up  to  be  sent  to  all  our  churches,  and  a  day  was  fixed  for 
simultaneous  contributions.     But  before  the  issue  of  the 
circular,  all  hope  of  any  success  was  cut  off  by  the  financial 
embarrassments  of  the  country,  nor  has  .it  yet.  been  possible 
to  execute  the  plans  the  Committee  had  formed.    The  pres- 
ent pressure  of  the  exigency  in  Transylvania  we  are  not 
able  now  to  report. 


U.  AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  469 

ifi         The  past  few  months,  remarkable  for  the  unusual  relig- 

-.h    ious  interest  which  has  widely  pervaded  the  public  mind, 

II    must  bring  up  to  a  new  discussion  the  old  traditional  dogmas 

h    t)f  the  Church.   If  little  has  been  said  about  these  during  the 

-ii     heat  of  the  "  Revival,"  its  converts  must  be  indoctrinated  in 

it     0rder  to  be  retained.    Thousands  of  persons  are  thus  to  be 

I     led  to  confront  these  doctrines,  to  take  a  fresh  look  at  them, 

i     ia  the  light  of  common  sense,  and  in  the  exercise  of  devout 

-and  in  the  main  charitably  disposed  feelings.    Already  there 

are  signs  of  such  a  revulsion  as  has  not  yet  been  known. 

It  requires  no  prophet's  spirit  to  see  that  revolting  articles 

of  faith,  which  hitherto  have  hardly  kept  their  place  in  the 

creeds  of  the  churches,  must  be  essentially  modified,  or  they 

will  be  altogether  rejected.    In  the  coming  discussion,  which 

no  sectarian  management  and  timid  policy  can  shut  out, 

there  will  be  a  call  for  whatever  of  purer  teaching,  and 

tsounder  interpretation,  our  literature  can  contribute. 

We  may  anticipate,  therefore,  with  much  confidence,  that 
when  the  business  transactions  of  the  country  have  resumed 
.  their  former  activity,  the  sales  of  our  books  will  be  extend- 
ed. But  meanwhile,  during  the  past  stagnation  of  business, 
we  too  have  felt  the  blow  which  has  fallen  upon  so  many 
business  and  charitable  enterprises  of  our  country  and  of 
the  world.  It  will  be  the  first  care  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee for  the  next  year  to  adopt  prompt  and  wise  measures 
to  extinguish  our  debt  The  Committee  do  not  doubt  that 
the  friends  of  the  Association  will  co-operate  in  any  judi- 
cious measures  to  effect  this  object,  which  they  hope  may 
receive  attention  at  this  meeting,  and  the  benefit  of  timely 
and  quickening  suggestions. 

Just  at  the  close  of  our  last  anniversary  our  whole  broth- 
erhood, and  this  entire  Christian  community,  received  with 
profound  grief  the  tidings  of  the  decease  of  Kev.  William 

VOL.  V.   NO.   IV.  40 


470  THIBTT-THIBD  ▲NHiyBBSASY  OF   THE 

Parsons  Lunt,  D.  D. ;  and  more  recenUj  another  minister 
of  the  Grospel,  Rev.  Samuel  Gihnan,  D.  D.,  a  kindred  spirit 
in  scholarly  culture  and  purity  and  refinement  of  Christian 
thought,  departed  from  our  earthly  fellowship.  In  commem- 
oration of  their  life  and  labors  more  fitting  words  than  we 
can  utter  have  already  been  pronounced :  we  allude  to  them 
here  only  as  a  new  motive  to  diligence  and  faithfulness,  and 
a  new  bond  of  attachment  to  a  body  of  Christians  in  which 
have  been  trained  up  those  having  their  rich  gifts,  and  leav- 
ing the  precious  remembrance  in  which  they  are  held. 

To  these  bereavements  of  our  brotherhood,  an  event 
which  transpired  but  yesterday  compels  us  to  add  another. 
Bev.  Augustus  B.  Pope  has  passed  away  in  the  early  ma- 
turity of  his  years,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  professional  life  of 
marked  earnestness  and  success. 

And  thus  by  the  hopes  of  the  living,  by  the  memory  of 
the  dead,  by  the  successes  already  achieved,  by  the  possi- 
bilities laid  in  our  path,  we  are  summoned  to  consider  what 
doctrines  we  ought  to  proclaim  with  more  freedom  and  bold- 
ness, to  what  higher  standard  of  Christian  life  we  ought  to. 
aspire,  what  encouragements  should  quicken  our  zeal,  what 
spirit  should  give  new  inspiration  and  new  triumphs  to  our 
body  of  believers.  These  topics  the  Committee  now  present 
for  the  consideration  of  this  meeting.  To  open  the  way  to 
a  free  and  general  expression  of  opinion,  they  have  invited 
addresses  from  those  to  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  listen 
with  highest  respect,  and  from  this  day's  celebration  thej 
hope  we  may  all  receive  an  answer  to  the  prayer,  "  Lord, 
increase  our  faith." 


After  the  reading  of  the  above  Report,  the  President 
stated  that,  as  intimated  in  the  closing  sentences  of  the 
Report,  the  Committee  presented  the  following  subject  for 


AMERICAN  UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  471 

consideration:  **The  relation  of  Liberal  Christians  to  a 
true  theology  and  a  higher  form  of  Christian  life,  and  the 
encouragements  and  duties  of  their  position/'  Under  this 
general  head,  an  address  would  now  be  delivered  on  "  The 
Importance  of  Greater  Clearness  and  Fulness  of  Statement 
in  the  Inculcation  of  Christian  Doctrines,"  by  Rev,  Mr. 
Brigham  of  Taunton. 

Mh.  Brigham  spoke  as  follows :  — 

"It  is  to  be  regretted,  Mr.  President,  that  your  disposition  of 
the  topic  which  has  been  assigned  ^  me  had  not  fallen  to  one 
more  suited  to  its  discussion,  by  tastes  and  by  experience.  I  have 
no  passion  for  that  special  branch  which  is  called  *  Christian  The- 
ology/ and  no  skill  in  the  management  of  sound  words,  or  the 
dissection  of  creeds.  I  am  accustomed  to  regard  all  doctrine,  on 
whatever  subject,  which  is  connected  with  the  welfare  of  men,  as 
*  Christian  doctrine ' ;  and  by  no  means  to  limit  this  term  to  any 
variety  of  ecclesiastic  formula.  Social  and  personal  ethics,  the 
laws  of  friendship,  of  kindred,  of  trade,  and  of  policy,  all  enter 
into  the  Christian  scheme,  as  I  am  in  the  habit  of  presenting  it. 
Moreover,  the  phraseology  of  the  topic  seems  to  imply  a  reproach 
which  I  am  not  willing  to  make,  —  to  intimate  that  our  religious 
body  has  been  lacking  in  the  clearness  and  fulness  of  its  doctrinal 
statement.  I  do  not  think  that  such  a  reproach  would  be  just ; 
and  should  rather  maintain  that,  in  the  statement  and  development 
of  its  characteristic  doctrinal  ideas,  our  body  has  been  as  faithful 
as  any  body  of  Christians.  It  is  a  loose  and  hasty  charge  which 
is  often  brought  against  Unitarians,  that  they  do  not  know  what 
they  believe ;  and  it  is  not  the  less  unfair  that  nominal  Unitarians 
often  consent  to  it.  We  know  what  we  believe  as  much  as  any 
sect.  We  may  not  be  able  in  condensed  phrase  to  declare  our 
doctrine,  but  we  know  it  by  sight,  by  hearing,  and  by  sympathy ; 
we  know  what  it  is  in  the  lives,  on  the  lips,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
men  ;  and  it  is  only  there  that  it  is  important  to  know  it.  Saying 
what  we  believe  is  too  often  mistaken  for  knowing  what  we  be- 
lieve; and  the  creeds  which  are  the  most  fluently  repeated  are 


472  THIBTT-TniRD  ANNIYEBSABY   OF  THE 

those  which  are  the  least  understood.  Rapidity  and  readiness  of 
doctrinal  professions,  words  which  come  '  trippingly  from  ih& 
tongae,'  are  far  from  being  signs  of  clear  ideas.  Many  an  Eng- 
lish canon,  who  intones  so  vigorously  the  Nicene  symbol,  is  more 
skilled  in  the  mysteries  of  the  trencher  than  in  the  mysteries  of 
the  creed ;  and  even  he  will  be  far  distanced  by  a  Catholic  girl, 
who  can  in  ten  minutes  finish  the  prayers  of  her  rosary.  Our 
knowledge  of  doctrine  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the  ease  with  which 
we  recite  formulas.  We  really  tell  to  others  what  we  believe,  by 
the  acts  which  we  do,  by  our  average  conduct  and  conversation, 
by  our  demeanor,  not  merely  in  the  church,  but  at  home,  in  the 
shop,  and  on  the  Exchang^  That  is  the  best  declaration,  and 
without  that  all  other  declaration  is  of  no  value,  and  must  go  for 
nothing.  In  that  declaration  of  doctrine,  I  do  not  think  that  our 
body  specially  fails. 

'*  But  some  circumstances  in  the  present  religious  revival  have 
led  men  in  our  body  to  think  that  we  must  have  been  deficient  in 
our  doctrinal  statements.    From  many,  perhaps  from  most,  of  our 
churches,  some  proselytes  have  been  made  to  surrounding  religions 
bodies.    It  is  argued  that  such  changes  must  arise  from  neglect  of 
instruction.     Of  course,  intelligent  men  and  women,  not  to  say 
intelligent  children,  would  never  be  brought  to  leave  such  sound 
and  comforting  views  as  those  of  our  faith,  and  adopt  a  faith  of 
different  temper,  were  they  properly  indoctrinated,  —  had  they 
really  understood  what  they  were  formerly  said  to  believe.     Such 
a  supposition  cannot  be  admitted.    It  must,  therefore,  be  a  lack  of 
instruction  which  has  caused  the  apostasy.     There  can  have  been 
no  thorough  learning  of  the  truth,  else  it  would  not  have  been  so 
readily  forsaken.     Perhaps  in  many  cases  this  is  so.     Yet  some- 
times those  who  have  been  most  constaiit  in  theological  teaching, 
who  have  given  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept  in  incul- 
cating doctrines,  are  mortified  to  see  members  of  their  congrega- 
tion go  off  to  other  teachers,  and  adopt  other  confessions.    This 
is  the  frequent  experience  of  theological  preachers  and  teachers, 
both  in  the  pulpit  and  the  Sunday  school. 

"  An  inference  which  I  draw  from  this  fact  is,  that  clearness 
and  soundness  of  dogma  do  not  necessarily  make  it  attractive. 


AMERtCAK  tfNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  473 

The  mystic  elemeDt  draws  men  toward  a  creed  quite  as  much, 
to  say  the  least,  as  the  elemeut  of  reason.  The  very  paradox  of 
the  prevalent  confessions  seems  to  fit  them  for  the  exercise  of 
faith.  When  men  come  to  state  their  religious  opinions,  they 
would  state  as  their  beliefs  not  what  they  really  know,  hut 
more  than  they  know;  and  no  harm  is  done,  they  think,  if  they 
say  more  than  they  can  know.  The  very  objection  which  we 
make  to  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  that  it  involves  a  mathematical 
obntradiction,  seems  to  justify  this  dogma  as  an  object  of  faith.  It 
is  confessed  the  more  willingly,  for  that  very  reason.  What  have 
mathematics  to  do  with  piety?  What  place  have  arithmetical 
roles  in  heaven  ?  They  not  only  do  not  understand  the  dogma, 
but  they  ^o  not  want  to  understand  it.  And  all  the  analogies, 
sabtleties,  and  verbal  quibbles  by  whi6h  they  seek  to  justify  it, 
make  really  no  part  of  the  basis  of  their  own  belief.  I  doubt  if  a 
man  has  ever  been  converted  to  the  Trinity  by  any  reasons  given 
for  that  doctrine.  The  Scripture  argument  may|^ave  influenced 
him ;  but  that  does  not  touch  the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  —  it  only 
touches  the  utterances  of  Christ  and  the  opinions  of  the  Apostles. 
And  it  is  the  same  thing  with  the  other  hard  parts  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  creed.  They  are  all  more  freely  apprehended  when  they  are 
left  anexplained,  left  as  mere  sententious  announcements.  The 
most  damaging  work  that  can  be  done  for  the  doctrine  of  eternal 
punishment,  is  to  attempt  to  explain  it  and  to  defend  it  on  rational 
grounds.  Passing  so  from  the  charmed  circle  of  holy  mysteries, 
and  subjecting  itself  so  to  the  touch  of  vulgar  inquiry,  it  is  un- 
masked and  unsanctified.  It  must  remain  an  object  of  marvelling 
faith  to  keep,  its  place  as  a  saving  dogma.  It  seems  to  me  to  be 
true  of  alL  the  prevalent  ecclesiastic  dogmas,  that  they  are  the 
most  satisfactory  when  they  are  the  most  obscure;  when,  with 
definite  words,  indefinite  ideas  are  joined  to  them ;  when  they  in- 
vite rhapsody,  but  forbid  analysis.  Obscurity  seems  rather  to 
dignify  dogma.  The  nebulous  galaxy  is  greater  than  any  system 
of  planets. 

"This  maybe  true  in  regard  to  the  parts  of  faith  which- men 
only  assent  to,  in  regard  to  that  outlying  creed  which  is  merely  to 
be  kept  as  an  idol.    But  it  isr  not  true  in  regard  to  the  practical 

40* 


474  THIBTT-THIBD  ANNiyBBSABT  OF  THE 

put  of  fidth,  its  working  force.  Here  it  u  veiy  necessary  that 
men  shoald  know  what  they  beUere.  No  man  can  work  well 
whose  principles  of  action  are  unsettled,  unless  he  work  as  part  of 
a  machine,  of  which  somehody  has  settled  the  principles  and  ad- 
justed the  order.  If  a  doctrine  is  to  be  directly  effectiye,  eithei 
upon  individaal  character  or  in  social  relations,  it  .ooght  to  be 
dearly  stated  and  clearly  understood.  If  theology  is  to  do  any- 
thing except  make  worshippers  and  professors ;  if  it  is  to  lead  men 
and  form  them,  more  than  to  bid  them  kneel  and  pray  and  wonder; 
if  it  is  to  open,  instead  of  closing  eyes,  and  lift  men  instead  of 
bowing  them  down, — its  words  must  be  inteUigible,  the  signs  of 
ideas,  the  signs  of  realities.  The  importance  of  clear  doctrinal 
statements  will  be  differently  estimated  as  we  regard  the  jmrpose 
of  religion.  Separate  it  from  life,  make  it  antagonistic  to  the 
world  and  the  world's  interests,  and  the  more  uncertain  you  can 
make  its  statements,  the  better.  Join  it  with  life,  make  it  the 
guide,  the  prov^ence,  the  present  strength  of  the  world,  and  the 
brighter  its  light  can  shine,  and  its  marks  can  be  seen,  the  more 
surely  will  it  accomplish  its  work.  If  the  cathedral  and  the 
theatre  are  alien  from  each  other,  by  all  means  let  the  dim  re- 
ligious light  and  confusion  of  clustered  pillars  and  pointed  arches 
rebuke  the  gilding  and  symmetry  of  the  place  of  sports.  If  we 
must  leave  work,  leave  pleasure,  to  go  where  religion  is,  let  as 
have  in  its  very  words  the  sound  of  uncertainty,  the  sense  of 
dimness.  Too  much  light  then  may  destroy  the  illusion,  and 
show  that  the  stone  of  the  altar  is  no  better  than  the  stone  of  the 
street,  and  the  prayer  of  the  priest  no  better  than  the  prayer  of  the 
road-side  beggar.  But  if  religion  is  to  gather  in  and  unite  and 
move  these  beating  hearts  of  men,  to  teach  them  duty,  to  make 
them  friends,  and  to  throw,  not  the  shadow  of  its  spire  upon  ware- 
house roofs  and  indifferent  crowds,  but  the  joy  of  its  inspiration 
over  a  waiting  throng,  let  us  have  light  streaming  in  through 
every  window,  that  we  may  see  the  faces  of  these  brethren,  and 
that  they  may  see  and  know  that  in  the  souls  of  brethren  is  God's 
best  temple. 

'*  We  may  illustrate  this  idea  better  by  instancing  three  im- 
portant Christian  doctrines,  —  the  doctrine  of  man's  sin,  of  Christ 


AMEBICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  475 

as  a  Saviour,  and  of  Regeneration.  All  these  doctrines  we  ac- 
knowledge. These  are  as  fundamental  in  our  religious  statement 
as  in  any  creed  of  other  sects.  The  doctrine  of  human  sin,  — liow 
shall  we  speak  of  this?  We  can  make  it  greater  by  making  it 
abstract.  We  can  call  it  the  primeval  curse  of  man,  go  back  for 
it  through  all  the  centuries  to  the  abode  of  Paradise,  and  see  its 
beginning  in  the  Fall  of  the  first  created  image  of  God.  We  can 
take  in  our  thought  the  whole  great  race,  and  see  sin  sweep  like 
a  deluge,  never  resting,  on  all  the  face  of  this  darkened  world. 
We  can  carry  it,  as  the  crude  faith  of  the  Church  has,  from  history 
and  nature  to  a  supernatural  conception,  and  embody  it  in  Satan, 
the  infinite  fiend,  the  rival  of  God.  Say  that  sin  is  Satan  in  the 
heart,  and  that  he  has  dominion  over  all  the  heart  It  seems  a 
definite  statement  enough.  What  category  can  be  more  exact  ? 
What  can  bring  its  image  better  before  the  eye  ?  Yet  has  this 
told  you  or  me  what  our  sin  is?  has  it  said  any  word  to  you  or  me 
which  interprets  for  us  any  fact  in  our  lives,  or  carries  us  one  step 
on  our  way  in  dealing  with  sin  ?  It  is  a  dim  statement,  with  all 
its  definiteness,  —  only  an  altar  tomb,  whose  burning  candles  show 
the  skeleton  enshrined,  —  no  light  to  your  heart  or  mine.  It  will 
do  for  us  if  we  wish  to  '  believe '  in  sin,  if  we  would  profess  merely 
a  great  and  adequate /a<7A,  but  not  if  we  would  know  sin  or  cor- 
rect it.  For  that  end,  we  must  leave  the  statements  of  the  origin 
and  the  extent  and  the  supernatural  support  of  this  curse  of  man, 
and  must  find  in  our  daily  conduct,  in  our  words,  our  thoughts, 
our  motives,  our  evil  habits,  and  our  unruly  passions,  this  reality 
of  life.  Only  of  this  sin  is  it  important  that  we  should  have  any 
clear  doctrine,  only  of  the  sin  that  makes  men  untruthful,  un- 
grrateful,  base,  and  brutal.  If  there  be  any  confusion  upon  this 
sin,  it  does  not  matter  much  how  definite  the  statement  of  abstract 
sin  may  be.  We  read  frequently  in  the  journals,  now,  that  this 
or  that  man  have  expressed  '  very  clear  convictions  of  sin.'  It 
might  be  interesting  to  find  how  far  these  are  clear  convictions  of 
the  man's  own  besetting  sins,  of  the  ways  and  works  which  in  his 
own  life  are  sinful. 

*'Take,  again,  the  doctrine  of  Christ  the  Saviour;  a  doctrine 
which  we  aflirm  more  earnestly,  that  so  many  deny  to  us  the  right 


476  THntanr-THiBD  AmmrsBSMiT  or  ths 

to  hoM  it.  What  is  a  clear  statement  of  this  doctrine  T  Is  it  in 
multiplying  epithets  of  leYerenoe  and  love, — in  calling  Christ  *  Me- 
diator,' '  Sacrifice,* '  Lamh  of  God,' '  oar  dear  Redeemer,' '  (rod's 
Son  '1  Is  it  in  dwelling  upon  his  name,  with  whatever  expres- 
sion of  gratitnde  and  endearment!  Is  it  in  enlarging  upon  the 
seheme  of  salvation  tbrongh  him,  and  gathering  around  his  sacred 
bmng  all  that  prophets  and  apostles,  that  saints  and  martyrs,  have 
been  thought  to  say  about  himi  Is  it  in  urging  others  to  *  come  to 
Christ'?  This  seems  distinct  enough.  Can  there  be  any  mis- 
take, you  will  ask,  about  the  fidth  ni  men  who  speak  sudi  stroD|f 
and  concrete  words  of  the  Redeemer  and  his  glory?  These  axe 
they,  surely,  who  are  determined  to  *know  nothing  but  Christ 
and  him  crucified.'  And  if  that  u  to  be  the  end  of  it,  if  we  want 
ChriM  to  be  nothing  but  a  name  in  our  creed,  between  us  and  God, 
it  is  quite  as  well  that  the  dogma  should  be  left  with  thb  kind  of 
distinctness.  It  fits  into  poetry  better  so  than  if  you  attempt  to 
refine  upon  it.  Break,  if  you  choose,  the  bands  of  Orion  with 
your  prying  telescope,  but  do  not  so  disturb  the  grace  of  that 
Southern  Cross.  If  Christ  is  to  be  Saviour  in  the  sky,  let  us  say 
of  him  only  such  words  as  we  may  sing,  and  angels  may  consent 
to.  Such  is  the  form  which  clear  statements  of  this  doctrine  in 
revival  times  are  apt  to  take.  They  become  full,  only  as  they  j 
multiply  words  of  honor,  and  vary  the  name  of  the  blessed  Savionr. 
*'But  do  such  statenaents  make  the  doctrine  practical?  Are 
they  of  the  sort  that  teach  men,  that  teach  you  and  me,  what  the 
Saviour  is  ?  Must  we  not  know  from  what  Christ  saves  us,  from 
what  he  redeems  us?  Must  we  not  know  more  than  his  sacred 
names,  more  than  his  general  office  ?  A  clear  and  full  statement  of 
this  doctrine  shows  to  every  man  and  to  every  condition  the  exact 
and  present  application  of  Christ's  word  to  his  need,  the  relation 
and  resemblance  of  the  Saviour's  life  to  his  life,  —  where  they 
agree,  where  they  differ,  —  brings  the  precepts  of  Jesus  into  com- 
parison with  familiar  maxims,  the  acts  of  Jesus  into  comparison 
with  such  acts  as  we  do  here,  and  so  makes  the  salvation  a  reality, 
saving  men  who  ask  to  be  saved  from  some  evil  or  some  tempta- 
tion or  some  trouble  of  which  they  have  actual  experience.  If 
our  object  be  to  get  thb  real  salvation,  to  get  this  real  deliver* 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  477 

ance,  then  the  clearer  it  can  be  made,  the  more  thoroughly  it  can 
be  demonstrated,  the  better.  If  there  ^re  two,  or  five,  or  ten  evils 
from  which  we  pray  to  be  delivered,  it  is  clear  statement  of  doc- 
trine which  shows  deliverance  from  those.  And  any  epithets 
which  hinder  such  clear  idea,  however  reverent  they  may  be,  are 
to  be  rejected.  Many  of  our  most  beautiful  hymns  are,  for  pur- 
poses of  instruction,  not  merely  useless,  but  worse  than  useless, 
darkening  for  us  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge. 

''  Take  as  a  third  illustration  the  doctrine  of  Regeneration,  —  a 
doctrine  just  now  so  prominent,  and  pressed  with  so  much  earnest- 
ness. We  believe  that  doctrine,  too.  What  is  a  clear  and  full 
statement  of  it  ?  Is  it  to  say  that  the  believer  is  a  new  man  in 
Christ,  has  a  new  heart,  is  no  longer  carnal,  but  spiritual  ?  Is  it 
to  say  that  he  has  met  with  a  change?  Do  raptures  and  visions, 
confessions  and  avowals,  really  describe  it?  Have  you  learned 
anything  about  it,  when  your  converted  neighbor  protests  to  you, 
with  free  quotation  of  Scripture,  that  he  feels  differently,  that  the 
world  looks  to  him  other  than  it  did  before,  and  that  he  seems  to 
be  near  heaven?  Such  a  description  may  be  inspiring,  but  it.  is 
not  edif3ring.  You  may  be  carried  off  by  the  contagion  of  the 
enthusiasm,  but  you  are  made  no  wiser  concerning  the  doctrine. 
A  '  clear '  statement  of  it  is  one  which  tells  you  and  me  exactly 
what  is  the  difference  between  the  carnal  and  the  spiritual  life, 
what  passions,  habits,  appetites,  are  hostile  to  inward  righteous- 
ness, —  which  shows  how  holiness  becomes  reality,  how  truth,  jus- 
tice, virtue,  all  things  that  are  eternal  (and  so  belong  to  eternal, 
or  spiritual,  life),  may  be  made  actual.  To  explain  regeneration 
fully,  is  not  merely  to  repeat  the  conversation  of  Christ  with 
Nicodemus,  or  the  words  of  Paul  to  the  converts,  but  to  show,  the 
man  who  is  a  sinner,  and  knows  his  sin,  the  way  in  which  he  may 
conquer  this  sin,  and  may  come  to  that  spiritual  state  when  the 
beatitudes  shall  be  part  of  his  daily  experience.  To  explain  re- 
generation in  these  days,  is  not  so  much  to  insist  upon  the  new 
birth,  a  vague  thought  at  the  best  in  the  minds  of  most  Christians, 
as  to  show  the  type  of  a  true  manhood,  not  so  much  to  dwell  on 
the  feeling  of  a  saved  man  as  upon  the  character  of  a  true  man. 

'*  But  I  am  sensible  that  these  observations  do  not  meet  the  in- 


478  THIBTT-THIBD  AXKIVIBBBAKT   OV  THE 

tention  which  selected  this  among  the  topics  for  our  aniUTenary 
meeting.  There  may  be  those  among  m  (wise  men,  to  whom  I 
would  defer)  who  think  that  it  is  yery  imp<»tant  to  go  over  in  the 
old  way,  by  constant  iteration,  the  general  troths  concemiog  God 
and  man,  which  lie  beneath  all  onr  morality.  That  is  well  enoogfa, 
it  seems  to  me,  provided  it  do  not  divert,  our  heed  from  Cbristian 
doctrines  which  specially  belong  to  immediate  and  present  daties. 
Too  much  attention  to  abstract  theology  may  be  made  an  excuse 
for  neglect  in  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law.  I  sympathize  thor- 
oughly with  the  words  of  this  thesis,  if  they  are  slightly  transposed 
so  as  to  read,  *  The  importance  of  elearer  and  fuller  statements  of 
the  doctrine,  or  the  teaching,  of  Christ.'  We  need,  brethreo,  to 
be  more  full  in  our  iterations  of  that  doctrine,  of  the  words  which 
Christ  spake  to  his  disciples  and  the  multitnde,  to  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  to  publicans  and  sinners.  Christian  doctrine  is  in  that 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Let  us  have  that  sermon,  every  part  of  it, 
from  the  opening  blessing  to  the  closing  parable,  explained,  en- 
forced, pressed  home  upon  the  consciences  of  the  hearers.  That 
will  be  better  than  any  exposition  of  a  creed.  Christian  doctrine 
is  in  that  charge  to  the  Apostles.  Let  us  have  that  charge  moie 
amply  interpreted,  as  the  best  lesson  to-day  for  those  who  would 
become  teachers  and  prophets,  —  better  than  any  refinements  of 
systematic  dogma.  Christian  doctrine  is  in  those  denunciations  of 
the  hypocrisy  and  wickedness  of  the  false  teachers  of  the  people, 
eminently  in  those  chapters  which  pronounce  the  sentence  of  God 
upon  the  transgressors  of  his  law.  And  in  these  days,  when  grezi 
religious  bodies,  professing  to  instruct  and  bless,  deliberately  out- 
rage the  rules  of  common  honesty,  and  vote  that  the  favor  of  men 
is  better  than  the  serYice  of  God,  it  is  very  needful  to  make  clear 
and  strong  that  branch  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  time  indeed 
demands  more  full  statement  of  that  doctrine  which  is  peculiarly 
the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  not  what  darker  times  or  philosophic  fan- 
cies have  added  to  his  doctrine,  or  substituted  for  it,  —  not  what  has 
assumed,  and  even  with  us  seems  confidently  to  claim,  the  name  of 
*  Christian  doctrine,'  —  but  such  doctrine  as  Jesus  himself  taught 
in  the  cities  and  villages.  Let  us  have  more  of  that  doctrine.  Let 
us  have  clearer  statements  of  God's  law  as  greater  than  Satan's 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  479 

law,  of  righteousness  as  better  than  profit,  of  man  as  more  than  the 
Sabbath,  and  of  retribution  as  sufe  to  the  cheat  and  the  oppressor. 
Those,  Sir,  are  the  subjects  on  which,  it  seems  to  me,  our  state- 
ments should  be  more  full  and  clear  than  they  are.  Let  us  not, 
in  our  books  or  our  tracts,  in  our  churches  or  our  schools,  in 
preaching  or  in  teaching,  overlook  these -great  doctrines.  Let 
ours  be  the  policy,  not  of  calculating  silence,  but  of  open  speech 
concerning  every  sin,  every  need,  every  duty,  every  promise  which 
Christ  has  made  known  in  Lis  gracious  word." 

Rev.  Dr.  Hedge  followed  in  an  Address  on  the  following 
subject,  —  "Lidications  of  Progress  towards  a  more  Consist- 
ent Theology,"  -^  and  spoke  as  follows :  — - 

'<Mr.  President,  the  word  *  consistent'  is  somewhat  indefinite. 
I  understand  a  consistent  theology  to  mean  a  theology  consist- 
ent with  our  views  and  attainments  in  other  departments,  — 
ivith  our  knowledge  of  material  nature,  with  the  progress  of  sci- 
ence, with  the  intellectual  movement  of  the  time.  The  indications 
of  progress  towards  such  a  theology,  if  not  so  abundant  as  one 
could  wish,  are  very  significant.  But  the  strongest  indication  is 
the  dissatisfaction  of  thibking  and  cultivated  people  with  the  old 
creeds,  and  the  disposition  to  modify,  explain,  and  rationalize  them 
on  the  part  of  those  who  for  one  reason  or  another  nominally  pro- 
fess them.  With  the  best  intentions  to  preach  the  traditional  doc- 
trines in  their  naked  and  pristine  severity,  it  is  felt  that  the  old 
theology  shows  its  hurts  and  its  wrinkles  in  the  strong  light  of 
modern  science ;  it  is  not  quite  presentable  without  a  little  patch- 
ing and  painting.  No  creed  is  pure  spirit,  no  creed  therefore  is 
privileged  with  eternal  youth.  Whatever  truth  the  old  creeds 
contain,  is  truth  in  earthen  vessels ;  and  the  vessel  will  shrink 
and  warp  and  crack  and  get  leaky  in  the  stretch  and  strain  of 
man's  intellectual  and  civil  growth.  The  old  painters  depicted 
scenic  Christianity  on  walls  that  have  heaved  and  sprung  with  the 
accidents  of  climate  and  the  wear  of  time.  The  old  theologians 
delineated  their  dogmatic  Christianity  on  philosophical  and  civil 
frameworks  of  theory  and  use,  which  time  has  battered  and  shaken 
until  the  once  smooth  and  consistent  sketches  have  become  dis- 


480  THIBTT-THIBD  AinmrSBSABT  OF  THE 

torted  and  displaced,  and  ihow  ugly  fiaamea ;  —  the  lines  are  all 
awrj,  the  figoxea  lose  their  apUrndf^  or,  aa  in  Leonardo'a  Last  Sup- 
per, have  the  ground  taken  from  under  them. 

*'An  age  of  aoienoe  has  aneoeeded  to  an  age  of  sentiment,  and 
preacribea  to  theology  new  oonditiona.  The  old  aystems  were 
framed  on  a  wholly  difbrent  groandworic  of  physical  knowledge 
and  theory  from  that  which  now  prevails.  They  were  framed 
when  thia  earth  waa  auppoaed  to  be  the  centra  and  the  only  ra- 
tional body  of  the  aidereal  oniyerae,  and  aan,  moon,  and  stars  weie 
belioYed  to  be  movable  lantema  circulating  aroond  it, — the  heay- 
ena  a  aolid  frame  fitted  to  it  like  a  cap, — the  whole  created  at  one 
atroke  a  few  thousand  yeara  bade,  and  deatined  to  laat  a  very  few 
yeara  longer.  They  were  framed  when  men  believed  in  dragons 
and  grifllns  and  devils  with  bats'  wings,  and  a  jail  underneath  the 
earth  for  the  damned,  and  a  palace  above  the  aky  for  the  blest.  It 
is  impossible  that  these  crude  and  bounded  theories  of  nature  shoold 
not  Imve  affected  the  theological  aystems  set  in  them.  It  is  im- 
possible that  the  new  intuition  of  the  universe  should  not  modify 
those  systems  now,  or  necessitate  new  ones. 

*'  Natural  science,  so  far  as  it  deserves  that  name,  proceeds  by 
the  inexpugnable  method  of  mathematical  demonstration ;  theo- 
logical dogmas  are  merely  inferences  more  or  less  plausible  from 
assumed  premises.  Now  when  a  demonstrable  truth  comes  into 
conflict  with  a  generally  received  opinion  which  is  not  demonstra- 
ble, that  opinion  must  sooner  or  later  yield,  however  consecrated 
by  tradition  and  the  general  faith  of  mankind.  The  Church  of 
Rome  fought  long  and  desperately  agabst  the  Copemican  sjrstem 
of  astronomy,  which  seemed  to  conflict  with  a  scrap  of  poetry  in 
the  Book  of  Joshua.  ^  It  issued  bulls  to  make  the  earth  stand  still, 
—  a  significant  symbol  of  what  theology  has  often  attempted,— 
to  stop  the  movement  of  the  planet  It  was  a  vain  contest:  Rome 
might  imprison  Galileo,  but  *  the  stars  in  their  courses '  fought 
against  Ptolemy,  and  Rome  was  finally  forced  to  yield.  The  po- 
etry of  Joshua  was  allowed  to  be  poetry,  and  the  facts  of  astronomy 
were  allowed  to  be  facts. 

'*  In  our  own  time  a  similar  battle  has  been  waged  by  theology 
against  geology,  in  the  interest  of  another  scrap  of  poetry  in  the 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  481 

Book  of  Genesis.    Geology  discovers  that  it  took  a  good  while  to 
make  the  world,  more  than  a  week,  more  than  a  year,  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  years ;  but  theology  insists  on  making  a  week's 
work  of  it,  and  fanciesrthat  the  credit  of  the  Bible  is  involved  in  that 
despatch.  The  controversy  is  very  instructive,  and  will  prove  in  the 
xetrospect  very  humiliating.     What  wild  and  monstrous  theories 
have  been  propounded  to  conciliate,  or  to  mollify,  at  least,  the  sheer 
eontradiction !     What  hypothetical  tortures  to  compel  the  refrac- 
tory facts  and  wring  a  different  testimony  out  of  them !    The  last 
theory  is,  that,  since  God  must  begin  somewhere  in  the  work  of 
ereation,  he  may  as  well  have  begun  in  the  middle  as  anywhere'; 
may  as  well  have  begun  by  hiding  the  bones  of  perished  mastodons 
that  nevdt  existed,  seventy  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as 
by  making  mastodons  in  the  first  place  and  suffering  them  to  perish 
in  the  course  of  ages  before  making  sheep  and  oxen  and  men.' An- 
other party,  finding  the  geological  record  hopeless,  have  tried  their 
hand  on  the  Biblical,  and  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  day 
is  not  necessarily  twenty-four  hours,  —  that  by  stretching  a  point  it 
may  mean  a  million  of  years ;  or  that  creating  does  not  necessarily 
mean  causing  to  exist,  but  may  mean  producing  the  impression  of 
a  just  commencing  existence.    This  is  poor  trifling,  especially 
when  we  consider  the  object  of  it  all,  which  is,  not  to  glorify  God, 
or  to  strengthen  the  evidence  of  spiritual  and  moral  truth,  but  to 
save  the  credit  of  an  old  writing,  whose  authorship,  after  all,  is 
▼ery  uncertain.    It  argues  want  of  faith  in  Grod  to  suppose  that 
his  cause  and  his  government  and  his  truth  can  be  served  by  such 
painful  efforts  of  perverse  ingenuity.    It  is  all  to  no  purpose. 
There  stand  the  two  records,  contradictory,  irreconcilable.     The 
Bible  says,  *  In  six  days  God  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth.' 
Greology  says,  that  in  many  thousands  of  years  Grod  made  the  heav- 
ens and  the  earth.     The  one  statement  is  written  in  ink  upon 
parchment  by  some  unknown  scribe  ;  the  other  is  written  in  the 
everlasting  rocks  by  the  evident  finger  of  the  Creator.     But  the- 
ology has  believed  in  the  less  certain  rather  than  in  the  more  cer- 
tain ;  it  has  been  less  willing  to  trust  the  indubitably  divine  than 
the  reputed  divine. 

"  I  mention  these  things,  Mr.  President,  as  an  illustration  of  the 

VOL.  T.  NO.  IV.  41 


483  THIBTT-THIBD  AlOnTKBSART  OV  THB 

prineiple  that  the  pro^reat  of  aeianoe  must  neoeasarily  modify,  or 
bring  into  diseredit,  eoclMiastieal  opinions  antecedent  to  modem 
diaeoTeriea,  and  involving  exploded  theories  of  nature,  — that  the- 
ology must  accommodate  itself  to  the  new  positions,  to  the  new 
oonquests,  of  the  haman  mind.  In  all  systems  there  are  eternal, 
immutable  truths,  — pure  spirit, — whidi  no  scientific  discoveries 
ean  overthrow,  which  are  as  true  now  as  in  the  time  of  Moses. 
But  these  truths  are  oontained  in  formulas  which  are  not  pare 
spirit,  and  therefore  not  indeslniotible ;  which  take  their  character 
from  the  time,  and  therefore  share  the  fortune  of  the  time.  The 
immortality  of  the  soul  is  as  true  now  as  ever  it  vras,  but  the  doc- 
trinal exhibitions  of  a  future  life  can  no  longer  be  the  same  as 
when  the  resnrreetion  of  this  material  body,  with  all  its  identical 
particles,  oould  be  asserted,  and  no  diemistry  was  responsible  fot 
the  physical  possibility  of  such  a  consummation.  The  inevitable 
operation  of  moral  and  spiritual  laws  in  determining  the  fatue 
condition  of  the  human  soul  is  as  true  now  as  ever  it  was,  bat  the 
doetrinal  exhibitions  of  future  retribution  can  no  longer  be  the 
same  as  when  a  state  of  eternal  and  incessant  torment  could  be 
affirmed  as  a  normal  mode  of  being,  and  no  scientific  appreciation 
of  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  the  laws  of  life  was  violated  by  the 
supposition. 

**  Mr.  President,  I  am  not  attempting  to  forecast  the  new  the- 
ology. That  is  one  of  the  last  things  I  should  dream  of  undertak- 
ing. I  don't  think  that  we,  as  a  denomination,  are  prepared  to 
forecast  it,  much  less  to  frame  a  complete  and  consistent  scheme 
of  doctrine.  We  can  see  the  defects  and  falsities  of  the  old,  and 
repudiate  them  ;  but  we  are  not  yet  ripe  for  consenting  statements 
of  the  new,  —  we  are  not  ripe  for  united  confession.  We  have 
been  assailed  on  this  score ;  we  have  been  found  fault  with  for 
having  no  ereed.  It  is  a  proof  of  our  modesty,  our  honesty,  our 
respect  for  private  opinion,  that  we  have  none.  If  ever  the  time 
shall  come  when  we  can  unite  in  one  confession,  embracing  any- 
thing more  than  the  most  primary  and  fundamental  beliefs,  it  will 
not  be  till  we  have  reconsidered  more  fully  the  old  ideas  in  the 
new  light,  and,  what  is  equally  important,  the  new  negations  in 
the  old  light,  and  adjusted  ourselves  more  perfectly  with  tradition 


AMEBICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  483 

on  the  one  hand  and  philosophy  on  the  other.  I  am  far  from  ex- 
aggerating our  proficiency  in  this  matter.  On  the  contrary,  I  be- 
lieve that  much  remains  to  be  done,  especially  in  the  way  of  pene- 
trating and  appreciating  tradition.  Some,  perhaps,  who  bear  our 
.name,  and  whose  progress  in  negation  has  been  greatest,  have 
gresxly  failed  in  that  respect.*  They  have  repudiated  without 
comprehending. 

♦*  Negation  is  easy ;  no  want  of  progress  in  that  direction. 
Standing  still  is  easy  ;  no  deficiency  in  that  respect.  The  diffi- 
culty lies  in  a  progress  which  is  at  the  same  time  development,  — 
tiie  development  of  something  positive ;  a  progress  which  is  not  a 
Touning  away  from  tradition  and  the  Church,  but  a  carrying  out 
of  the  latent  ideas  embodied  in  them.  Unless  progress  is  also  de- 
Yelopment,  we  may  as  well  stand  still.  In  the  matter  of  Christol- 
ogy,  for  instance,  —  the  doctrine  concerning  Christ,  —  the  bare  hu- 
nanitarian  view,  the  view  which  represents  Christ  as  a  mere  teacher 
of  moral  truth,  a  martyr  to  the  truth,  whom,  after  his  death,  his 
adoring  followers  deified,  —  is  very  obvious,  very  intelligible, 
but  also,  as  it  seems  to  me,  very  shallow,  very  far  from  ex- 
pfeasing  all  that  lies  in  the  idea  of  Christ.  It  is  no  development 
of  the  ecclesiastical  idea,  but  simply  an  ignoring  of  it. 

**  I  will  not  pursue  that  topic,  Mr.  President,  because,  as  I  have 
said,  it  is  not  my  business  to  tell  what  the  new  theology  shall  con- 
tain. I  will  only  indicate  one  or  two  principles  which,  I  think, 
-will  determine  its  constitution  and  distinguish  it  from  the  old. 
One  is  a  more  rational  use  of  the  Bible.  The  time  has  past  when 
by  thinking  men  the  Bible  can  be  considered  as  wholly,  and  in  all 
its  details,  an  abnormal  composition,  to  be  read  and  judged  on 
principles  entirely  different  from  those  which  are  applicable  to  all 
other  books.  The  reformed  theology  will  use  the  Bible,  not  as  a 
fetich,  but  as  a  counsellor  and  friend ;  not  as  a  theocratic  ukase 
issued  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  blindly  received  without  question 
or  criticism,  but  as  a  treasure-house  of  spiritual  truths,  which  each 
is  to  use  and  be  governed  by  just  so  far  as  he,  by  the  action  of  his 
own  understanding,  and  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  within 
him,  can  appropriate  and  assimilate  its  contents,  and  no  farther. 
It  is  to  be  used  with  deliberate,  independent  judgment,  as  light  is 

r 


484  THnrrr-THiBD  ArnirsBSABT  of  the 

QMd  by  the  Meiog  eye,— not  with  nnqneetioiiiog  sanender  of 
Jodgment,  is  a  blind  man  foUowB  blindly  his  domb  guide.  I  be- 
Us?e  that  the  Bible  as  well  as  theology  wonM  gain  infinitely  by 
SQoh  treatment.  One  reason  why  the  BiUj  is  not  more  read 
and  Taloed,  is  the  foolish  fetidiism  in  regard  to  it.  When  less 
worshipped  as  a  thing,  it  will  be  more  efficacious  as  spirit  and 
TtUTH.  The  old  Egyptians  missed  the  use  of  some  of  their  best 
edibles  by  making  gods  of  them ;  so  Christians  have  miased  the 
spiritual  sustenance  of  the  BiUe  in  using  it,  not  as  the  bread  of 
life  to  be  nounshed  by,  but  as  show-bread  to  swear  by.  It  was 
the  capital  mistake  of  Protestantism,  at  the  outset,  to  giye  it  this 
false  character  and  function,  and  to  make  the  mere  letter  an  infal- 
lible oracle^— equally  infelliUe  in  all  matters.  Others  beside 
Unitarians  are  beginning  to  see  this.  A  distinguished  diTine  of 
the  Anglican  Church,  a  Professor  at  Oxford,  remarks;  that,  *  With 
a  numerous  section  of  the  Protestant  communion,  a  mere  literal 
adherence  to  the  text  of  the  Bible  constituted  ss  complete  a  Bpi^ 
itual  slayery  as  any  whidi  had  been  imposed  Jby  a  domineeiing 
priesthood  and  an  infallible  Church.  *  They  did  but  transfer  the 
claim  of  oracular  authority  from  the  priest  to  the  text,  or  rather 
to  the  preacher's  interpretation  of  it.  Such  was  the  first  princi- 
ple of  Puritanism,  which  has  exercised  as  pernicious  an  influence 
oyer  modem  Christianity  on  one  side,  as  Romanism  on  the  other.' 
The  reformed  theology  will  have  little  of  Puritanism  but  its  ear- 
nestness and  devotion,  and  its  martyr  spirit  of  independence. 

'*  Once  more,  Mr.  President,  the  reformed  theology  will  be  less 
^ostly  and  ghastly,  more  gracious,  life-warm,  and  humane,  than 
theology  has  hitherto  been.  One  reason  why  intelligent  and  well- 
meaning  people  have  been  repelled  from  theology,  is  its  seeming 
unreality,  its  dissociation  from  the  actual  world,  and  from  practi- 
cal righteousness.  Its  topics,  motives,  interests,  have  been  too 
remote  from  common  life.  More  has  been  said  about '  getting  re- 
ligion,' <  finding  the  Saviour,' '  obtaining  a  hope,'  than  about  hon- 
esty in  business,  moderating  the  love  of  gain,  doing  good  and 
communicating,  breaking  every  yoke  and  letting  the  oppressed  go 
free.  A  revival  of  religion  sweeps  over  the  land,  and  is  hailed  as 
the  very  advent  of  Christ;  but  when  we  ask  for  the  fruits^  they 


AMEBIGAK   tJNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  485 

are  not  measured  by  the  statistics  of  practical  righteousness,  but 
l^  quite  another  gauge ;  and  the  first  meeting  of  a  great  religious 
aBSOciatfon  which  succeeds  is  marked  by  a  refusal  to  say  or  do 
aojthing  that  may  ^11  into  judgment  the  most  prominent  and  cry- 
sin  of  the  land.  Thus  we  divorce  religion  from  charity  and 
We  make  a  ghost  of  it,  and  some  are  afraid  of  it  for  the 
reason  that  the  first  disciples,  after  the  resurreetion,  were 
^taid  of  Christ.  'They  were  terrified,  and  supposed  they  had 
iaen  a  spirit';  but  he  said  to  them,  '  Handle  me  aiid  alee ;  for  a 
spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have.'  The  flesh 
and  bones  of  Christ,  the  life-warm  blood  of  Christ,  —  his  genei> 
eofly  sympathetic  humanity,  —  this  is  what  we  have  yet  to  com- 
psebeud,  to  bring  out  and  make  patent,  and  to  incorporate  into  our 
theology ; — to  bring  religion  within  hand's  reach,  not  merely  with- 
in tongue's  reach  ;  —  not  taking  the  cup  of  salvation  to  intoxicate 
one  another  therewith,  in  the  way  of  barren  emotion ;  not  content 
with  talking  religion  in  public  assemblies  that  end  in  talk ;  but 
Emulating  it  in  rules  of  business,  and  methods  of  charity,  and 
types  of  chara,cter ;  drinking  the  blood  of  Christ  but  to  turn  it  into 
our  own  blood,  and  to  incarnate  it  in  our  life. 

*^  The  great  reform  needed  in  theology  is  to  do  justice  to  the 
present  world.  The  old  theology  thought  more  of  the  life  to 
come  than  of  this.  It  dwelt  much  on  death  and  what  was  to  follow 
death;  it  would  have  men  occupy  themselves  exclusively  with 
those  regards.  It  said,  this  life  is  so  fleeting  and  so  poor,  so  be- 
set with  trials  and  with  woes,  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  expect 
much  from  it ;  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  get  through  with  it  as  well 
as  we  can,  and  when  we  have  put  off  this  mortal  we  shall  first  be- 
gin to  live :  our  only  business  here  is  to  get  there.  I  cannot 
agree  to  this  view  of  \i{6.  Let  theologians  say  what  they  will, 
this  iis  not  the  great  end  of  religion.  What  we  chiefly  want  of 
religion  is  to  thoroughly  utilize,  and  thereby  consecrate,  this  pres- 
ent life.  Let  theology  teach  me  how  to  make  the  most  and  the 
best  of  here  and  now,  and  the  hereafter  may  take  care  of  itself. 

'*  I  cannot  sit  down,  Mr.  President,  without  bearing  my  grate- 
ful testimony  to  the  precious  labors  of  our  honored  co-workers  on 
the  other  side  of  the  water.    I  refer  not  merely  to  the  theologians 

41* 


486  THIBTY-THIBD  ANVTVIEBSABT  OF  THE 

of  oar  own  denomination,  bot  to  those  of  the  Anglican  Church,— 
to  men  like  Powell,  Rowland  Williams,  Stanley,  and  others,  who 
are  laboring  to  purify  theology  of  its  corruptions,  and,  withoat 
oompromising  the  great  truths  of  revelation,  to  adjust  the  doctriDe 
of  the  Church  with  the  riper  knowledge  of  the  time.    K  we  speak 
of  indications  of  an  improved  theology,  what  indications  so  deci- 
nve  and  so  hopeful  as  this,  —  that  such  men  can  be  found,  and  such 
views  propounded,  and  such  freedom  enjoyed,  within  the  pale  of  a 
Church  so  venerable  in  its  lineage  and  so  orthodox  in  repute? 
They  are  working  for  us  as  effectually  as  the  most  devoted  of  our 
own  communion;  not  by  building  up  our  denomination,  but  by 
working  with  us  to  the  same  end,  by  advancing  the  cause  which 
we  have  most  at  heart.    Their  advent  is  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  theology  to  be  welcomed  with  gratitude  and  great  joy." 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr«,Hedge*8  address,  the  President 
of  the  Association  stated  that  a  paper  had  this  moment  been 
placed  in  his  hands  which  he  would  read  to  the  meeting. 
He  accordingly  read  as  follows :  — 

*'  To  OUR  Christian  Brethren  in  America, 
"  Beloved  in  the  Lord,  —  Greeting  : 

'*  Grace,  Mercy,  and  Peace  be  with  you,  from  God  our  Father, 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ! 

'*  We,  brethren  of  Asia,  and  such  as  are  with  us,  salute  you; 
and  commend  to  your  care  a  young  disciple,  Philip  Jogut  Chunder 
Gangooly. 

'*  Salutation  by  the  hand  of . 

"C.  H.  A.  Dall, 
**  Pastor  qfthe  Calcutta  Unitarian  Church. 

'<  With  the  elders  and  members  of  Committee,  among  whom 

are  we : 

**  Samuel  Smith, 

h.  counseli, 

Robert  Nunn. 
'*  Unitarian  Mission  Rooms^  Calcutta,  No.  4 

Tank  Square,  Jan.  20,  A.  D.  1868." 


AMERICAN  UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  487 

The  President  further  observed,  that  he  had  been  in- 
formed that  this  young  man,  also  referred  to  in  the  Report 
^of  the  Committee,  had  just  arrived  in  Boston,  and  was  him- 
self the  bearer  of  the  paper  now  read.  The  President  had 
not  finished  this  sentence  before  Philip  Jogut  Chunder  Gan- 
goolj  entered  the  church  from  the  vestry-room  at  the  side 
of  the  pulpit.  His  appearance  created  a  great  sensation,  as 
no  one  in  the  church  had  previous  knowledge  of  his  arrivaL 
As  Philip  ascended  the  platform,  the  President  extended  his 
light  hand  to  him,  offering  him  a  welcome  in  the  name  of 
the  Association,  and  affording  him  an  opportunity  to  say  a 
word  to  the  audience.  A  slender,  dark-skinned  young  man 
of  twenty-two  years  of  age,  with  a  keen  black  eye,  and  a 
highly  intelligent  face,  he  turned  to  the  thronged  assembly, 
and  a  breathless  silence  prevailed.  He  said,  in  intelligible, 
good  English,  he  ^^  would  only  express  the  pleasure  he  felt 
in  being  welcomed  by  such  a  multitude  of  friends,  and  add 
his  hope  that  they  would  instruct  him  so  that  he  could  re- 
turn to  India  and  redeem  his  countrymen  from  their  idolatry 
and  sins." 

Philip  then  took  a  seat  in  the  rear  of  the  pulpit,  and  the 
President  announced  that  an  address  would  then  be  deliv- 
ered by  Rev;  Dr.  Osgood  of  New  York,  on  "  The  Differ- 
ences of  Belief  in  our  Body." 

Db.  Osgood  came  forward  and  spoke  as  follows :  — 

''Mr.  President,  —  It  is  rather  a  hard  task  that  you  have  as- 
signed me,  —  the  task  of  noting  the  differences  of  opinion  in  our 
ranks,  with  an  eye  to  some  common  ground  of  union.  To  describe 
the  variations  of  doctrine  in  our  little  body  of  Christians  might 
puzzle  the  famous  Catholic  divine  who  undertook  to  review  the 
variations  of  Protestantism,  —  Bossuet ;  and  surely  I  can  lay  small 
claim  to  the  broad  wing  and  keen  eye  of  the  Eagle  of  Meaux. 
Bossuet  noted  differences  in  order  to  show  their  magnitude,  and 
to  prove  the  utter  folly  and  failure  of  attempting  to  secure  any 


488  THIBTT-THDU>  ▲MHIVXKSABT   OF  THE 

kind  of  religioiui  hafinony  apart  from  an  authoritatiTe  tieed  and 
an  infallible  Church.  Oar  aim  is  quite  the  contrary.  I  am  to 
surrey  differences  in  order  to  find  points  of  union.  I  am  not, 
allowed  to  rest  in  the  very  easy  position  that  we  are  to  agree  to 
differ,  and  so  quietly  leave  all  diversities  of  opinion  and  feeling  to 
adjust  themselves ;  but  I  am  asked  to  show  that  we  are  to  differ  in 
order  to  agree,  and  so  to  win  our  varieties  of  tendency  into  some 
common  line  of  direction. 

*'  When  we  are  in  perplexity,  the  simplest  eoorse  is  generally 
the  best;  and  instead  of  going  into  any  metaphysical  analysis  of 
the  essentials  of  denominational  unity,  or  making  any  statistical 
or  tactical  calculation  of  the  numbers  and  strength  of  various 
cliques  or  parties  among  us,  I  will  simply  take  it  for  granted 
that  we  meet  here  as  brethren,  and  must  agree  on  some  essential 
grounds  because  we  are  such.  On  this  great  review-day  the 
Church  Militant  musters  her  forces,  and  we  are  called  to  take  cor 
place  somewhere  in  the  ranks.  It  is  easy  to  know  where  we  be- 
long without  asking  some  orderly  sergeant  to  take  our  measure, 
and  so  have  our  place  decided  by  mathematical  gauge,  —  without 
either  begging  some  sharp-eyed  scout  to  count  the  ranks  of  the 
host  to  enable  us  to  see  what  is  the  easiest  position,  or  which  is 
the  largest  division,  that  we  may  do  as  the  wily  Frenchman  did, 
who  declared  that  in  every  quarrel  his  invariable  rule  was  to 
side  with  the  strongest  party.  We  are  only  to  look  for  our 
own  tribe,  for  those  who  are  our  own  kindred  by  birth  and 
breeding.  Where  their  standard  floats  in  the  breeze,  where  the 
same  mother's  blood  mantles  in  the  veins,  and  the  familiar  names 
of  home  and  church  are  spoken,  there  is  our  own  people  and 
there  is  our  place.  In  this  place  I  stand  by  your  invitation  to- 
day ;  and  as  a  humble  minister  of  that  branch  of  the  Universal 
Church  called  Unitarian,  I  say  my  poor  word  alike  for  liberty  and 
for  co-operation. 

*'  I.  I  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that,  with  all  our  differences  of 
speculation  as  to  religious  doctrines,  we  have  a  ground  of  substan- 
tial agreement  as  to  the  idea  of  religion  itself,  especially  as  to  its 
foundations  in  the  soul  of  man  and  the  Word  of  God.  We  differ 
as  to  our  method  of  approaching  this  subject,  indeed,  yet  the  lioes 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  489 

of  approach  converge  to  the  same  point.  There  is  a  Transcendental 
party  and  a  Scriptural  party,  and  between  the  two  there  have  been 
some  pretty  sharp  controversies,  and  perhaps  occasionally  a  little 
hard  feeling.  Some  of  us  come  to  religion  more  from  the  intui- 
tions of  reason  and  the  convictions  of  consciousness,  whilst  others 
begin  with  the  positive  word  of  revelation,  and  are  mainly  disposed 
to  achool  the  individual  mind  by  the  lessons  of  the  authoritative 
record.  Now,  whatever  we  may  say  of  the  evils  of  the  feud  be- 
tween the  Transcendentalists  and  the  Scripturalists  among  us,  (and 
sorely  there  are  some  things  to  be  regretted  and  forgiven  on  each 
s^e,)  it  must  be  granted  that  we  are  richer  and  stronger  on  ac- 
couDt  of  the  controversy,  and  each  movement  has  brought  to  us  new 
measures  of  freedom  and  of  faith.  The  Transcendentalist  surely 
starts  from  a  noble  position,  and  rightly  believes  that  the  seat  of 
religion  is  in  the  human  soul ;  and  before  Scriptures,  priesthoods, 
and  temples  existed,  there  was  a  light  divine  that  in  some  meas- 
ure lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  The  Tran- 
scendentalists were  sometimes  misunderstood,  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  browbeat  them  on  the  part  of  persons  little  qualified  to 
criticise  their  errors  or  their  excellences.  They  were  not  to  be 
put  down,  and  some  of  them  in  vexation  were  driven  out  of  their 
accustomed  fellowship.  Most  of  us,  however,  who  shared  in  that 
philosophical  tendency  found  more  motives  for  deepening  than 
for  lessening  our  fellowship  and  faith,  and,  if  not  always  encour- 
aged by  the  fathers  of  our  churches  as  we  desired,  we  managed 
to  work  our  way  to  a  positive  Christian  position,  and  to  be  greatly 
strengthened,  not  only  in  \)ur  religious  convictions,  but  in  our 
ideas  of  the  worth  of  revelation,  by  our  spiritual  philosophy. 
Many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  earnest  men  in  our  pulpits  now,  have 
been  trained  in  the  Transcendental  school  of  philosophy ;  and  the 
few  of  our  old  brethren  of  that  school  who  are  not  with  us  in 
name  and  work,  and  who  have  still  followed  their  old  convictions 
into  other  fields,  either  of  reform  or  of  orthodoxy,  have  vastly  en- 
riched our  common  literature  and  religion  by  their  eloquence, 
their  learning,  and  their  thought.  Our  fraternity  is  stronger  for 
the  whole  movement ;  and  it  is  clear  now  to  us,  that  the  best 
minds  who  climb  the  mount  of  sacred  vision  on  the  side  of  reason 


490  THIBTT-THIRD  UTNIYSBSABT  OF  THE 

tnd  the  soul,  approach,  as  they  ascend,  the  ranks  of  the  other 
party,  who  started  in  the  pathway  of  rerelation  ;  and,  in  signal 
instances,  both  have  met  together  upon  the  sammit  in  the  light  of 
the  everlasting  stars  and  in  the  clear  and  inspiriting  atmosphere 
of  that  open  heaven.     Who  diall  duly  honor  the  services  of  the 
men  who,  in  every  age,  from  the  days  of  Clement  and  Origen  to 
onr  own  time,  have  claimed  for  religion  a  foundation  in  the  reason 
and  conscience,  and  who  have  prepared  the  world  for  believing  in 
the  revelation  of  the  Divine  word  to  the  race  because  they  find 
each  an  earnest  craving  for  that  word  in  every  earnest  son!  ?   Onr 
own  philosophers  have  done  their  part  in  this  good  work,  and  are 
doing  it  still ;  and  England  and  America  owe  much  of  the  weight 
of  the  philosophical  protest  now  turned  against  materialism  and 
infidelity  to  such  men  as  James  Martineau,  James  Walker,  and 
their  scholars,  who  are  teachers  now  in  such  various  spheres. 

**  Our  Scripturalists  have  done  much  to  deepen  the  same  precious 
conviction  of  the  foundations  of  vital  religion.  Starting  with  the 
idea  that  the  Bible  is  the  book  of  humanity  as  well  as  of  God, 
they  have  shunned  the  perilous  error  of  taking  the  sacred  pages 
wholly  out  of  the  sphere  of  huma^  emotion  and  infirmity,  and  so 
claiming  for  them  a  position  so  far  up  in  supernatural  ghostliness 
as  to  exhibit  little,  if  anything,  but  the  official  statutes  of  an  arbi- 
trary potentate,  or  the  official  statement  of  an  arbitrary  scheme  of 
redemption.  Our  Scriptural  scholars  have  done  much  to  bring  oat 
the  meaning  of  the  Bible  as  a  record  of  human  experiences  as 
well  as  of  divine  revelations,  and  thereby  they  have  vindicated  by 
the  sacred  page  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  as  well  as  shown 
forth  the  dispensations  of  Grod^s  grace  in  answer  to  man^s  need 
and  prayer.  If  sometimes  our  elder  scholars  have  been  inclined 
to  accept  a  too  mechanical  philosophy  of  inspiration  in  their  expo- 
sitions of  texts,  they  made  up  for  the  narrowness  in  the  spirit  of 
their  interpretations,  and  by  their  lives  they  have  proved  their 
freedom  from  that  bondage  of  the  letter  which  killeth.  Both  tbe 
mere  literal  and  the  mere  philosophical  expositors  of  Scriptnre 
among  us  have  reverently  acknowledged  that  the  Bible  contains 
records  of  the  irevelations  of  the  eternal  word  of  God  with  mira^ 
ulcus  sanctions,  whilst  they  agree  in  rejecting  the  utterly  untena- 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  491 

ble  bibliqlatry  that  regards  the  whole  text  of  the  book  as  a  direct 
aod  infallible  transcript  of  the  Divine  Mind.  Not  new  worth,  but 
new  significance,  attaches  to  their  labors  from  the  fact  that  the 
free  minds  of  orthodox  Christendom  are  following  in  the  same 
track,  and  orthodox  England  and  America  are  compelled  to  honor 
divines  of  their  own  ranks,  who  have  dared  like  our  fathers  to  in- 
terpret the  Bible  by  its  own  principles,  and  tp  distinguish  between 
the  eternal  word  of  God  and  the  temporal  words  of  his  servants. 
Strengthened  by  so  much  good  company,  we  are  surely  not  now  to 
almndon  our  ground,  and,  either  in  ghostly  fright  at  liberalism  or 
firaniio  horror  of  authority,  shrink  from  our  noble  position,  that  re- 
UgioQ  is  no  creation  of  individual  caprice  or  of  arbitrary  revela- 
tion, but  is  founded  upon  the  essential  nature  of  man  and  the 
oternal  word  of  God. 

**II.  I  observe,  in  the  next  place,  that,  with  all  our  differences, 
ipre  may  agree  to  work  in  an  important  sense  together  for  out  faith 
in  the  Divine  Humanity  of  Jesus  Christ.  Some  of  us  regard  the 
Master  more  on  the  human,  others  more  on  the  divine  side ;  but 
there  is  no  earnest  man  of  us  who  cannot  reverently  combine  the 
terms,  and  say  that  he  believes  in  the  Divine  Humanity  of  Jesus 
Christ.  I  have  my  own  individual  faith  to  set  forth  in  the  right 
place.  I  need  here  only  say  that  I  believe  in  the  Divinity  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  regard  him  as  in  such  a  special  sense  a  par- 
taker of  the  Divine  nature  as  to  be  the  great  Mediator  between 
God  and  man,  not  indeed  by  a  diplomatic  or  official  mission,  but  by 
▼ital  and  dynamic  union.  To  my  mind  and  ministry,  Christ  is 
the  living  manifestation  of  the  Divine  word,  and  as  souls  seek  the 
Father  in  him,  the  Divine  Spirit  gives  witness  of  their  reconcilia- 
tion with  God.  Yet  I  am  aware  that  devout  men  of  our  fraternity 
do  not  believe  thus,  or  do  not  express  themselves  thus,  and  seem 
to  think  that  such  especial  honor  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ  dis- 
parages the  divinity  of  our  essential  human  nature.  However 
lax  their  theology  may  seem  to  some  of  us,  we  must  allow  that 
they  believe  not  a  little,  but  a  great  deal,  if  they  believe  in  the 
actual  Divinity  of  Christ  and  the  potential  or  possible  divinity  of 
all  souls.  They  surely  cannot  be  so  well  accused  of  unbelief  as 
of  enthusiasm.    Let  us  appreciate  their  faith  in  Christ  as  far  as 


492  THIRTT-THIBD  ANHIYERSABT   OF  THE 

it  agraes  with  oar  own,  and  not  treat  than  with  a  narrowness  un- 
worthy oar  hiatory  and  principlea.    We  are  to  respect  and  be- 
friend the  Hamanitarian  brethren  among  na,  and  rejoice  that  they 
have  done  and  are  doing  ao  much  to  vindicate  and  brighten  the 
aapeola  of  Christianity,  which  the  old  aaperatitions  have  done  so 
mnoh  to  blnr  and  distort  in  their  poor  passion  for  losing  sight  of 
the  Son  of  Man  in  their  exdoaive  adoration  of  the  Son  of  Grod. 
Of  coarse  they  are  right  in  maintaining  that  Christ  is  baman, 
whatever  errors  may  attach  to  their  views  of  him  as  divine,  and 
we  onght  to  favor  the  positive  element  in  their  &ithy  and  remem- 
ber that  a  devoat  sense  of  Christ's  character  can  never  fail  to 
win  men  to  spiritnal  faith.    If»  moreover,  we  find  a  certain  class 
of  minds  cherishing  most  fondly  one  aspect  of  the  Grospel,  instead 
of  mdely  repelling  them  from  that  aspect,  we  should  encourage 
them  to  look  farther  and  deeper.    If  some 'brethren  seem  to  be 
looking  at  the  Beaatifal  Gate  of  the  Templet,  and  lingering  there, 
instead  of  repelling  them  radely  from  the  door,  we,  should  rather 
encourage  them  to  stay  and  meditate  uniil  the  rhetork  of  the 
building  itself  shall  persuade  them  to  enter  in  and  bow  down  in 
the  holy  place.    I  read  some  years  ago,  under  the  trees  in  the 
quiet  sammer  time,  a  devout  book  of  meditations  and  prayers  by 
a  Catholic  devotee  whose  type  of  piety  turned  upon  the  Blessed 
Humanity  of  Jesas,  and  who  regarded  himself  as  especially  con- 
secrated to  that  service.     Why  may  we  not  be  as  catholic  as 
Rome,  and  allow  that  order  of  minds  to  serve  us  which  dwells 
most  fondly  upon  the  humanity  of  the  Master.     If  they  do  their 
work  reverentially,  they  will  not  harm,  but  help,  the  other  sphere 
of  service,  and  they  who  see  affectionately  the  human  graces  of 
Jesus  will  not  be  strangers  to  the  Divine  Word  that  dwelt  aod 
still   dwells  within  him.     With  Humanitarian  Christians,  who 
aim  to  edify  our  churches  in  piety  and  charity,  I  can  hold  fellow- 
ship, and  with  such  I  have  exchanged  pulpits.     A  brother  who  is 
thought  to  hold  such  views  lately  stood  in  my  pulpit ;  and  his 
devotions  and  preaching  were  such  in  spirit  and  in  thought  as 
greatly  to  impress,  edify,  and  comfort  our  people.     I  believe  that 
a  generous  and  Christian  bearing  towards  young  men  of  such 
temper  will  deepen  their  faith  and  enlarge  their  views,  whilst  ao 
opposite  course  tends  to  drive  them  into  bitter  radicalism. 


AHEBICAN  imiTABIAN  ASSOOIATIOK.  498 

"  They  who  hold  the  strongest  views  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ 
mmong  us,  will  perhaps  appreciate  most  fraternally  the  Humani- 
"tarian  party  in  our  ranks,  since  both  are  equally  dissatisfied  with 
4he  Arian  doctrine  that  regards  Christ  as  neither  God  nor  man, 
jmd  both,  believe  that  the  reverent  study  of  humanity  is  the  true 
way  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  Those  of  us  who  are  Unitarians 
more  of  the  school  of  Sabellios,  Swedenborg,  Schleiermacher, 
mod  Rothe,  than  of  Arius,  or  Priestley,  or  Norton,  although  we  call 
so  man  master,  will  least  despair  of  the  movement  that,  in  its 
^S>rt  to  honor  humanity  as  the  temple  of  God,  forgets  the  unity 
-of  the  temple,  the  continuity  of  the  worship  and  the  high-priest- 
hood of  Him  who  is  the  Messiah  of  humanity  in  being  the  Anoint- 
^  of  God,  for  they  will  think  that  movement  needs  only  to  be 
iDEiore  consistent  to  be  more  Christian.  We  can  all,  however, 
aoeet  as  disciples  of  the  Master,  and  all  in  a  sacred  sense  affirm, 
«8  the  Trinitarian  world  does  not  generally  aflirm,  the  Divine 
fiamanity  of  Jesus  Christ 

*'  III.  I  remark,  in  the  third  place,  that  with  all  our  differences 
we  may  agree  to  work  together  for  common  views  and  objects  with- 
0Ut  sacrifiang  the  liberty  of  individual  ministers  and  congregations. 
We  can  agree  to  circulate  such  books  as  this  Association  is  pub- 
lishing, we  can  agree  to  help  any  earnest  man  who  is  laboring 
to  baild  up  a  living.  Christian  Church  of  our  name,  and  we  ought 
to  agree  to  support  earnest  missionaries  in  new  regions,  at  home 
and  abroad.  Yet  we  must  keep  our  liberty  for  ourselves  and 
our  congregations,  and  nothing  aan  be  vainer  than'  the  attempt  to 
build  up  a  close  corporation  or  central  authority  to  lord  it  over 
our  creeds  or  churches.  We  must  be  free,  and  if  free  we  are  left 
to  work  together  according  to  our  elective  affinities.  Thus  free, 
we  find  ourselves  drawn  together  by  new  affections,  and  are  little 
in  danger  of  running  off  in  a  tangent  into  the  extreme  of  No- 
Christian,  or  being  swallowed  up  in  the  centralizing  attractions  of 
the  popular  orthodoxy.  Some  brethren  have  gone  out  from  us 
and  the  usages  of  the  Church  Universal,  and  have  not  lost  our 
respect  or  good-will.  Yet  they  do  not  seem  much  to  enjoy  their 
outside  position,  nor  to  use  language  of  such  comfort  and  sweet- 
ness as  to  imply  that  they,  are  having  a  very  good  time.    I  can 

VOL.   V.  NO.   IV.  42 


494  THIBTT-THIRD  ANNIYBBSASY    OF   THE 

neTer  forget  old  friends,  and  do  wish  and  pray  that  some  whom  we 
have  known  and  cherished  may  learn,  or  rather  resume,  the  tempei 
of  Christians  and  the  vocaholary  of  gentlemen,  and  try  to  enlarge 
and  edify  hy  new  charity  and  fellowship  the  Church  of  Chiist  to 
which  they  are  indebted  for  their  best  inspirations.  Yet  we  can, 
if  we  must,  do  without  them,  and  if  we  have  stood  our  groimd 
heretofore  with  their  batteries  against  us,  we  have  little  cause  to 
fear  discomfiture  now  that  we  have  their  liberty  and  more  than 
their  faith  and  fellowship.  However  this  may  be  with  the  de- 
velopments of  the  last  ten  years  before  us,  we  are  not  likely  to 
quit  the  ranks  of  our  brethren,  and  join  the  motley  and  qaarrel- 
some  company  of  Come-Outers. 

**  Nor  are  we  to  sink  back  into  the  ranks  of  Orthodoxy.  -  Nay, 
it  is  one  of  the  privileges  of  our  position  that  we  can  appreciate 
and  enjoy  what  is  best  among  oar  Orthodox  neighbors  withoat 
going  over  to  them.  We  can  be  as  orthodox  as  we  please,  with- 
out asking  their  help  or  fearing  their  censure.  I  perhaps  iam 
lived  and  delighted  as  much  in  the  old  church  literature  aod 
associations  as  any  of  my  own  set  of  ministers,  but  my  satis&ctioD 
is  in  being  as  much  of  a  lover  of  the  old  thought  and  feeling  as 
I  choose,  without  being  shut  up  in  any  arbitrary  enclosures  of 
doctrine  or  practice.  I  enjoy  especially  the  liberty  of  knowing 
and  liking  Orthodox  men,  without  embarrassing  the  acquaintance 
by  burdening  them  with  my  heresies  or  being  burdened  by  theii 
dogmas.  I  suppose  that  we  can  do  without  them  as  well  as  they 
can  do  without  us.  We  have  done  whining  at  being  shut  out  of 
their  pulpits,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that  we  are  shut  oat 
of  their  good  opinion.  We  have  far  more  pulpits  open  to  oar 
word  than  we  can  occupy,  and  as  to  any  ideas  of  union  with 
other  denominations,  we  can  truly  say  that  there  are  two  aspects 
of  the  desirableness  of  such  a  consummation.  Good  old  Dr.  Ware, 
when  condoled  with  on  his  loss  of  the  sense  of  smell,  said,  with 
one  of  those  habitual  shakes  of  the  head,  that  was  like  the  oscilla- 
tion of  the  scales  of  that  justice  to  which  he  was  so  loyal :  *■  There 
are  two  views  of  that  subject ;  if  on  the  one  hand  the  loss  of  smell 
is  a  disadvantage,  on  the  other  hand  it  is  an  advantage,  since  this 
world  is  not  always  and  altogether  a  garden  of  roses.'    Ortho- 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  495 

doxy  sorely  is  not  wholly  a  garden  of  roses,  and  judging  by  the 
visages  of  some  of  its  freer  thinkers  and  workers  the  odor  of  its 
fields  is  not  always  that  of  *  Araby  the  Blest.'  We  honor  and 
often  love  our  Orthodox  brethren,  and  are  richer  by  their  learning 
and  stronger  by  their  piety.  Yet  we  like  them  best  in  their  place, 
and  like  to  visit  them  from  our  own  place.  We  think  them  in  the 
main  Christians,  and  on  evidence  more  satisfactory  than  that  of 
theix  arbitrary  tests.  Perhaps  in  their  painful  introversion,  and 
sometimes  morbid  self-reproaches,  they  may  be  comforted  by  the 
assurance  that  by  a  standard  outside  of  their  own  ranks  they  are 
thought  to  be  Christians,  and  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  the 
earnest  men  among  them  are  quite  as  much  comforted  by  our 
grood  opinion  as  we  are  by  theirs.  It  might  be  pleasant  to  stand 
once  in  a  while  in  their  pulpits,  and  see  them  in  ours.  But  if 
such  relations  come  at  all,  it  must  be  by  maintaining,  not  surrender- 
ing, our  essential  liberty.  The  Christians  of  the  school  of  Chan- 
ning  are  not  to  ask  the  right  to  be  called  Christians  by  the  breth- 
ren of  Jonathan  Edwards,  or  to  repudiate  the  Unitarian  name  to 
"win  audience  of  Trinitarian  hearers.  The  offer  of  the  process  of 
whitewashing  is  little  complimentary  to  our  cleanliness,  and  is 
not  worth  the  cost  of  the  lime  and  the  trouble  of  giving  and  re- 
ceiving the  ablution.  All  genuine  developments  of  conviction 
and  affinity  we  should  encourage  and  welcome.  If  any  man  goes 
from  ours  to  other  ranks,  let  them  go  in  peace  and  with  our  good 
wishes,  although  we  know  of  no  such  recent  secession.  If  any 
man,  from  his  peculiar  cast  of  mind  or  tone  of  experience  or  the 
demands  of  his  position,  is  led  to  take  any  half-way  ground,  let 
him  take  it  freely,  and  we  will  give  him  all  the  sympathy  he  asks, 
and  recognize  in  him  all  the  real  eloquence  and  fidelity  that  he 
possesses.  There  may  be  a  new  school  of  independents  among 
as,  but  if  they  are  wise,  and  do  not  wish  to  extinguish  the  very 
spirit  that  gives  them  their  life  and  influence,  they  will  beware  of 
being  tied  down  by  the  bonds  of  the  reigning  orthodoxy.  The 
noblest  of  the  new  orthodox  Independents,  Jlenry  Ward  Beecher, 
owes  his  exemption  from  denunciation  to  his  talents,  not  to  his 
principles;  and  with  equal  principle  and  less  ability  he  would 
have  been  visited  with  the  wrath  of  Andover,  as  he  has  been 


496i  THIBTT-THntD  AIIHIYSBSAST   OF  THS 

visited  with  the  wrath  of  PrinoetOB.  As  things  are  now,  he  has 
no  smiles  from  the  ruling  powers,  and  his  name  is  excluded  from 
the  list  of  celehrated  living  preachers  in  the  two  heavy  octavos  of 
pulpit  eloquence  recently  published,  and  he  has  no  place. in  the 
volume  of  noted  revival  sermons,  just  sent  forth  from  the  very 
scene  of  his  labors,  —  the  most  efiective  man  in  the  whole  revival 
movement.  The  few  who  have  looked,  perhaps  somewhat  fondly, 
towards  orthodox  zeal,  will  not  &il  to  note  the  spirit  of  orthodox 
exclusiveness,  and  beware  of  reverencing  their  birthright  of  lib- 
erty in  the  yearning  for  larger  fellowship. 

**  Not  running  off  into  any  wild  individualism,  nor  taking  shel- 
ter in  any  comfortable  conformity  to  the  old  orthodoxy,  let  us  hold 
our  providential  position,  devoutly  do  our  work,  and  bide  our  fu- 
ture. Grod  has  helped  us  signally  in  times  past,  and  with  all  ooi 
denominational  disappointments  we  have  had  great  successes,  and 
probably  we  have  not  for  many  years  been  more  cheerful  than  of 
late.  We  are  coming  together  in  new  ties  of  liberty  and  frater- 
nity, and  we  may  hope  to  find  some  more  vital  developments  of  con- 
gregational life  with  our  freer  aspirations  after  truth  and  charity. 
We  can  hope  little  from  any  new  schemes  of  deoominational  disci- 
pline, and  we  must  trust  to  the  free  workings  of  our  own  elective 
affinities  under  the  attractions  of  common  vital  forces.  We  must 
welcome  rather  than  discourage  every  sign  of  free  vitality  in  qui 
congregations,  and  rejoice  that  our  ministers  are  seeing  so  gener- 
ally the  folly  of  trusting  to  merely  party  names  or  denominational 
manoeuvring,  and  the  need  of  solid  parish  labor  as  the  ground  of 
their  prosperity.  Let  us  work  each  in  his  own  field  and  manner, 
not  doubting  that  God  will  give  increase.  As  we  labor  faithfully, 
we  may  expect  new  affinities  to  show  themselves,  or  old  affinities 
to  organize  themselves  into  more  vital  and  effective  methods.  A 
truer  church  life  will  come,  as  it  always  has  come  in  all  ages,  not 
as  the  scheme  of  artificial  policy,  but  as  the  incarnation  of  vital 
faith  and  good-will.  The  new  order  must  be  spiritual,  not  me- 
chanical, and  they  who  expect  to  bind  us  together  by  any  new 
schemes  of  government  or  confessions  of  doctrine,  mistake  the  laws 
of  dead  mechanism  for  the  laws  of  celestial  attraction ;  and  if  they 
had  been  taken  into  the  counsels  of  the  Creator,  these  wire-pullers 


AMERICAN    UNItARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  497 

might  have  suggested  the  expediency  of  fastening  the  earth  to  the 
sun  by  a  gigantic  chain-cable,  and  sending  out  a  band  of  Titans  to 
tie  the  fickle  moon  to  her  sober  mother  earth  by  a  huge  hawser, 
lest  she  might  in  some  volatile  mood  elope  from  her  venerable  par* 
ent's  protection  in  company  with  some  wandering  star.  We  can- 
not be  tied  up  thus,  and  we  have  known  enough  of  the  trials  and 
Tirtues  of  liberty  to  trust  to  the  working  of  its  vital  principles,  and 
to  believe  that  in  due  time  the  new  order  of  fellowship  will  devel- 
op itself  among  us,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  our  spheres  will  be 
drawn  into  their  places  in  the  free  and  sacred  catholicity  that  is  to 
be  the  glory  of  the  Church  of  the  Future.  We  are  to  do  what  we 
can  for  our  own  souls,  and  for  our  people,  but  we  can  do  little  for 
ourselves  or  for  them  without  the  faith  that  the  best  of  all  goods 
come  from  God,  and  that  the  Providence  which  has  called  us  to 
honest  difference  is  calling  us  to  honest  agreement.  In  nature  the 
higher  vital  force  is  always  harmonizing  lower  antagonisms,  as 
when  the  living  seed  unites  fire  and  water,  earth  and  air,  in  its 
mysterious  organization.  *  The  God  of  nature  is  the  Father  of  our 
spirits  and  the  Renewer  of  the  Church.  His  providence  and  grace 
will  teach  us,  not  only  to  agree  to  differ,  but  to  differ  to  agree. 
His  blessing  be  upon  us  evermore.'' 

At  the  close  of  the  above  address,  the  President  an- 
nounced that  the  audience  would  now  listen  to  a  speech 
from  Rev.  Mr.  Stebbins  of  Portland,  on  "The  Necessity  of 
a  Higher  Type  of  Christian  Life." 

Mr.  Stebbins  spoke  as  follows :  — 

**  Mr.  President,  —  When  we  speak  of  the  demands  of  the 
age,  of  the  necessities  of  the  present,  there  is  some  danger  of  run- 
ning into  cant.  But  I  have  only  one  thing  to  say,  and  let  that  be 
my  apology  for  not  saying  other  things ;  neither  let  anything  be 
construed  into  disparagement  or  neglect  of  the  various  claims 
binding  on  us,  in  the  wide  circle  of  our  religious  life,  or  in  the 
present  condition  of  religious  thought.  To  go  straight  to  the  sub- 
ject, therefore,  there  is  a  homely  question  which  pertains  to  all 
human  affairs,  a  test  question  indeed,  which  may  be  put  in  a  cap- 

42* 


498  THIBTT-THIBD  ANNIYSB8ABY    OF   THE 

iioas  or  philosophic  spirit,  aooordiDg  to  the  temper  of  him  who 
pats  it.  The  question  pertains  to  results :  What  do  yoa  turn  out! 
How  does  your  religion  look  when  it  is  doneT  What  kind  of  a 
man  does  it  make?  What  size  and  grace  does  it  give  to  our  hu- 
manity t  We  may  philosophiste,  we  may  theoiiEe,  we  may  helie?e 
most  abundantly,  but  there  is  a  crispy  oommon-seoae  which  stops 
you  short  and  says,  Show  your  man.  Show  a  man  established 
and  carried  out  on  the  plan  of  his  religious  thought. 

^  Directly  in  the  face  of  this  common-sense  statement  stands  the 
popular  theory  of  the  religious  life,  which  affirms  that  there  is  no 
carrying  out  of  the  man  about  it,  but  that  religion  runs  counter  to 
human  nature,  heads  it  in,  and  treats  it  more  as  a  hedge  than  as  a 
tree.  Now  I  affirm.  Sir,  that  there  can  be  no  testimony  to  relig- 
ion, either  as  philosophy  or  as  life,  there  can  be  no  rising  ord^  of 
spiritual  thought,  which  shall  carry  such  glad  conviction,  which 
shall  so  allure  the  world  to  heights  of  grace  and  love,  as  a  type  of 
free,  unconscious  spiritual  life  which  shall  reconcile  this  contiadie- 
tion,  and  be  seen  of  all  men  to  be  the  glory  and  adorning  of  oar 
manhood.  And  I  believe  that  the  next  thing  in  the  chemical  order 
*of  the  spirit  is  a  type  of  Christian  manhood  legitimately  constructed 
upon  the  indwelling  spirit  of  Grod; — not  a  life  systematized  and 
reduced  to  the  working  plan  of  doctrine,  but  a  life  which  in  its 
friendly  inspiration  of  our  nature,  and  in  its  truthfulness  to  oar 
whole  being,  confers  on  us  the  gracious  liberty  of  the  truth,  and 
vindicates  a  spiritual  Christianity  on  the  working  levels  of  daily 
conduct.  The  present  type  of  Christian  life  involves  a  contradic- 
tion between  religion  and  humanity,  and  I  believe  that  on  accoant 
of  this  contradiction  God's  spirit  of  truth  and  grace  has  never  had 
a  fair  chance  with  human  nature.  I  believe.  Sir,  that  our  popular 
religious  theories  and  life  are  based  on  a  delusion,  and  that  we 
commit  as  great  a  blunder  in  our  spiritual  methods  as  the  husband- 
man who,  to  enclose  his  fields,  should  undertake  to  make  the  morn- 
ing into  fence.  There  is  a  contradiction  involved  in  the  popular 
type  of  Christian  life,  which  can  be  reduced  only  by  rising  to  a 
higher  plane,  and  presenting  religion  in  the  synthesis  of  manhood. 
And  until  then  we  cannot  tell  what  God's  spirit  will  do  with  a 
man. 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  499 

"Admitting,  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  our  faith,  that  Christianity, 
even  in  its  adulterated  forms,  has  made  the  best  character, —  and 
that,  if  men  would  live  up  to  their  beliefs  as  enlightened  and  con- 
firmed by  Christian  truth,  they  would  be  much  better  men,  —  there 
remains  still  this  remarkable  and  significant  fact,  that  some  of  the 
best  types  of  manhood  have  been  so,  in  spite  of  the  principles  pro- 
fessed. They  have  not  been  the  legitimate  product  of  their  princi- 
ples. And,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  types  of  manhood  legiti- 
XDate  from  the  principles  professed,  but  which  are  dwarfed  and 
pinched  by  those  principles.  Admitting,  on  broad  and  general 
ground  of  all  men,  that  the  Christian  ideal,  even  in  a  corrupted 
fi>rm,  is  not  exhausted,  and  making  due  allowance  for  temperament 
and  build,  popular  Christianity  has  produced  two  styles  of  men,  — 
men  who  are  better  than  their  principles,  and  men  who  would  be 
better  were  it  not  for  their  principles.  And  these  two  styles  of  men 
make  up  the  bulk  of  Christendom.  While  it  has  been  a  saving 
grace  of  the  past  theology,  that  most  of  it  could  never  be  illustrated 
in  human  life,  and  it  cannot  be  said  to  the  reproach  of  men  that 
they  have  not  lived  up  to  their  faith,  but  rather  to  their  honor  and 
praise  that  they  have  not,  still  that  theology  had  the  effect  to  aug- 
ment and  perpetuate  the  divorce  between  manhood  and  religion. 

"  I  think  we  have  striking  illustrations  of  this  in  some  of  the  tru- 
est men.  I  have  learned  to  cherish  a  profound  respect  for  the 
mind  and  character  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  for  whatever  he  was  or 
whatever  he  did  was  legitimated  from  his  thought ;  he  was  thor- 
ough, and  his  intellect  was  as  honest  as  his  heart.  But  I  cannot 
avoid  the  impression  that,  while  his  religion  exalted  him,  it  also 
crippled  him.  Having  by  nature  a  generous  soul,  a  delicate  imagi- 
nation, a  keen  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  and  true,  either  in  life 
or  thought,  a  genuine  poetic  faculty,  he  was  prim,  precise,  austere, 
and  professional.  It  is  said  that  children  were  afraid  of  him.  Mak- 
ing due  allowance  for  the  influence  of  his  time,  so  far  as  his  relig- 
ious view  could  have  expression  in  life,  it  had  it  in  him ;  and  the 
unavoidable  impression  it  carries  is,  that  his  religion  cramped  and 
stinted,  rather  than  enriched  and  glorified,  his  manhood.  His  ter- 
rible logic  was  like  a  ball  and  chain  upon  his  nature,  and  doomed 
him  to  servitude.    He  sat  like  a  bird  of  mighty  wing  demure  and 


] 


500  THIBTT-THISD  ANNIYEBSAST    OF  THE 

sad ;  and  as  he  looked  away  to  the  mountaina,  or  into  the  blae 
heayens,  he  seemed  to  feel  that  his  ahode  was  on  high,  bat  his 
wings  were  clipped !  Jonathan  Edwards  made  a  great  contribu- 
tion to  the  religious  life  of  this  coontry,  by  presenting  a  type  of 
character  legitimated  from  his  principles.  Who  can  donbt  that 
he  would  have  been  a  nobler  type  of  manhood  if  his  principles  had 
been  more  friendly  to  our  nature?  If  the  manly  had  meant  the 
godly  with  him,  instead  of  the  ungodly,  how  would  his  mighty 
soul  have  blossomed  into  joy !  With  what  mingled  grace  and 
majesty  would  his  nature  have  put  forth  its  tender  buds  and  leaves, 
and  waved  its  mighty  branches,  and  bowed  and  laughed  in  the 
open  sunshine  of  Grod !  Men  of  his  logical  severity  and  intellect- 
ual truth  will  hold  their  nature  chained  fast  to  their  principles, 
and  if  their  principles  are  hard,  it  makes  a  hard  and  gnarly  style 
of  man.  But  there  are  others  who,  while  they  hold  principles 
equally  unfriendly,  have  not  intellectual  nerve  and  truth  enough 
to  hold  their  nature  down  to  a  tough  and  honest  logic.  Their  ha- 
manity  gets  away  from  them,  and  is  sweet  and  kind  and  loviog. 
As  men  they  are  right,  but  their  religion  stands  in  contradiction  to 
their  manhood  ;  and  thus  they  are  double,  —  the  man,  and  the  re- 
ligious man,  both  in  one.  Popular  Christianity  has  turned  oat 
these  two  styles  of  men ;  one  class  has  been  strong  enough  to 
put  our  humanity  in  irons ;  the  other  class  has  shown  our  haman- 
ity  too  strong  for  the  irons, — and  yet  asserted  that  the  iroDS 
ought  to  be  put  on. 

*'  This  contradiction  is  very  significant  and  suggestive.  It 
opens  the  whole  question  in  respect  of  the  power  and  inspiration 
of  the  spirit  in  the  soul,  —  whether  or  not  God's  spirit  is  the  inspi- 
ration of  our  humanity,  or  is  formal  and  mechanical  in  its  inflaeoce. 
I  believe  that  a  style  of  Christian  life  legitimately  constructed 
from  its  principles,  approving  itself  to  human  sentiments  and  afiec- 
tions,  in  short,  approving  itself  to  the  natural  heart,  presenting  re- 
ligion assimilated  with  manhood,  would  be  not  only  an  illustration 
of  the  glory  and  joy  of  the  godly  life,  but  also  a  substantial  contri- 
bution to  religious  thought.  We  can  never  have  a  theology  that 
is  worth  a  straw  until  this  ground  is  travelled  over,  and  the  higher 
facts  of  Christian  consciousness  eliminated.     The  popular  type  of 


AHERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  501 

Christian  life  in  either  aspect  is  unsound,  and  violates  all  healthy 
relation  with  spiritual  truth.  In  one  case,  it  is  the  logical 
sequence  of  principles  professed,  hut  contradicts  human  nature ; 
and  what  contradicts  human  nature  is  false,  for  that  is  God's  truth 
just  as  much  as  any  other  truth,  and  one  truth  cannot  contradict 
another.  In  the  other  case,  the  style  of  life  is  not  based  on  the 
principles  professed,  and  thus  violates  the  healthy  relation  of 
thought  and  conduct.  For  however  much  you  may  admire  a 
man's  character  which  is  not  the  natural  growth  of  his  thought, 
jou  feel  that  it  is  spliced,  or  wooden-legged ;  you  feel  that  the 
tap-root  is  cut,  and  its  juices  are  thin  and  poor,  for  it  has  no  vital 
relation  deep  down  with  the  warm  earth,  or  above  with  the  air 
and  sky.  I  am  glad  that  any  man's  humanities  should  outdo  his 
bard  and  mechanical  thinking,  but  do  not  point  me  to  him  as  a 
model  of  manhood  set  forth  in  Christian  life.  There  is  no  genu- 
ioe  synthesis  of  God's  spirit  with  human  nature  in  him ;  he  has 
simply  yoked  together  a  bison  and  a  dove,  and  that  is  a  team  that 
caa't  be  driven, 

''  There  is  something  in  the  popular  style  of  Christian  life  which 
establishes  beyond  controversy,  I  think,  that  religion  is  used  more 
as  a  medicine  than  as  food ;  and  that  is  why  it  makes  so  many  peo- 
ple sick.  The  idea  that  it  is  the  enriching  of  our  manhood,  seems 
not  to  have  dawned  upon  the  thought  of  men.  Thus  we  have  the 
double  man  in  one,  who  has  one  set  of  faculties  for  his  religion 
and  another  for  his  work ;  who  consecrates  his  rest  and  secular- 
izes his  duty,  and  talks  about  religion  as  he  talks  about  nothing 
else.  When  he  talks  of  doing  right,  being  honorable,  merciful, 
and  kind,  he  does  it  heartily,  naturally ;  you  feel  him,  for  he  puts 
himself  in  relation  with  you  by  the  genuine  and  hearty  liking  he 
has  for  these.  He  rejoices  by  nature  in  many  things  that  are  alto- 
gether lovely  and  of  good  report ;  but  tell  him  that  religion  is  the 
furtherance  and  exaltation  of  these,  even  the  heavenly  flavor  of 
human  life,  and  he  changes  countenance  and  says  religion  is  an 
awful,  a  solemn  thing,  and  Christianity  is  a  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion !  Thus  we  see  men  doing  that  as  men  which  they  would  not 
do  as  religionists ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  doing  that  as  religionists 
which  they  would  cot  do  as  men.     So  we  sometimes  see  a  minis- 


502  THIBTT-THIBD  ▲HNIYKBSABT  OF  THE 

t0r»  who  is  frmk,  manly*  and  generous  in  all  social  relations,  bat 
who  can  suddenly  draw  in  and  become  professional,  and  bis 
thought  is  poor,  mean,  and  scanty.  Superficial  people  call  him 
liberal ;  but  there  is  no  synthesis  of  spiritual  truth  with  manhood 
in  him,— his  soul  has  no  digestion,  and  the  man  feels  faint  and 
gone.  There  is  no  unconscious,  rejoicing  health,  no  hearty,  caie- 
less  pluck. 

"  The  heavenly  kingdom  in  the  popular  style  of  Christian  life  is 
divided  against  itself,  and  religion  is  a  kind  of  volunteer-militia 
law,  which  a  man  may  put  himself  under  or  not,  and  is  exempt 
from  duty  if  he  does  not  enlist.  It  is  not  discerned,  and  unde^ 
stood,  that  all  the  obligation,  sanctity,  and  blessing  of  religion  aie 
upon  every  man  by  virtue  of  his  manhood,  and  that  God's  baptism 
is  earlier  than  any  laying  on  of  hands. 

"  There  is  a  curious  little  illusion  of  sense  famUiar  to  all,  caused 
by  crossing  the  first  two  fingers  of  the  right  hand,  and  rolling  a 
ball  with  them  in  the  palm  of  the  other  hand.  The  illusion  is 
such  as  to  make  the  impression  of  two  balls.  The  theory  of  the 
illusion  is  this.  The  order  of  the  sense  of  touch,  as  it  becomes  dis- 
tributed by  habit  through  the  fingers,  is  reversed,  and  the  first  be- 
comes second,  and  the  second  first.  Put  the  fingers  natarally 
upon  the  ball,  and  it  is  one.  So  in  religion  there  is  an  illusion  by 
doubling  over  or  inverting  the  order  of  the  sours  perceptions. 
Let  the  soul  touch  religion  naturally,  and  it  is  one  thing ;  and 
Christian  life  is  simple  manhood  made  more  manly.  Why,  a  tree 
is  not  a  tree  without  the  sun ;  the  landscape  is  not  a  landscape 
until  the  day  stands  over  it,  and  leads  forth  the  fields  and  streains, 
and  hills  and  groves,  in  solemn  procession  of  joy  and  praise.  So 
man  is  not  man  without  Grod^s  spirit.  There  is  no  divorce,  no 
double  intention,  but  a  mighty  synthesis  of  elements.  The  con- 
tradiction which  religion  presents  in  the  popular  type  of  Christian 
life  can  never  be  reconciled  except  by  rising  to  that  higher  plane 
where  spiritual  truth  is  assimilated  with  manhood ,  and  the  human 
and  the  divine  shown  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing. 

*'  I  submit  that  a  noble  man  who  takes  religion  naturally,  as  the 
earth  takes  the  sunlight  and  the  rain,  and  shows  the  fruits  of  the 
spirit  native,  grown  on  his  own  vine,  not  imported  from  abroad, 


AMEBICAK  UNITABIAK  ASSOCIATION.  503 

dried,  or  hermetically  sealed,  is  a  testimoDy  to  religion,  and  to  the 
spirituality  of  the  Christian  religion,  such  as  the  present  peculiarly 
demands ;  and  that  higher  type  of  life  is  another  step  in  the  ascend- 
iDg  order  of  the  thoughts  of  God. 

"  Sir,  I  am  accustomed  to  think  that  it  requires  a  good  deal  of 
a  man  to  take  on  the  Christian  religion ;  he  must  be  of  broad  and 
noble  build,  and  all  his  joints  full  of  juice.  I  believe  that  this  is 
recognized  and  most  responsibly  indorsed  in  that  great  providence 
by  which,  through  history,  Christianity  has  followed  the  noblest 
races,  shown  a  native  affinity  for  ideas,  sought  the  greatest 
breadth  of  culture,  and  had  its  highest  form  among  the  free. 
This  great  fact  of  history  and  providence  is  directly  in  the  line  of 
my  thought,  and  reinforces  my  statement  that  there  is  no  divorce 
between  religion  and  humanity,  more  than  between  the  forest  and 
the  atmosphere,  and  that  the  men  who  illustrate  this  are  in  the 
▼an  of  the  world's  thought.  The  practical  demonstration  of  this 
by  the  incarnation  of  the  Christian  idea  in  Christian  life  is  the 
reconciliation  of  humanity  and  theology,  —  the  harmony  of  life 
and  philosophy.  There  can  be  no  theology  except  through  this. 
The  pavilion  of  truth,  in  which  man's  thought  can  abide  and  go 
and  come,  cannot  be  spread  except  on  the  ground  of  this  recon- 
ciliation. Calvinism  has  done  its  best  in  contributions  to  Chris- 
tian consciousness, —  there  can  be  no  new  facts  of  the  spirit  elimi- 
nated from  that ;  and  the  highest  fashion  of  a  man  it  has  ever 
presented,  legitimately  constructed  upon  its  principles,  is  a  cross 
between  a  Hebrew  and  a  Christian,  a  brier  grafted  upon  a  thorn. 
The  highest  style  of  Christian  life  which  it  has  presented  not 
based  upon  its  principles,  has  illustrated  the  unwillingness  of 
humanity  to  follow  its  logic.  The  first  contradicts  human  nature, 
the  last  contradicts  human  nature  and  itself. 

"  I  believe  that  we  have  a  style  of  Christian  thought  and  senti- 
ment, on  which  can  be  constructed  a  type  of  Christian  life  friendly 
to  human  nature,  and  harmonious  with  itself,  —  in  which  religion 
may  be  set  forth  assimilated  with  manhood.  We  have  no  me- 
chanical theories  within  whose  limitations  we  submit  our  life  to 
the  spirit,  and  we  belfeve  that  all  spiritual  truth  must  be  elimi- 
nated in  our  own  souls.     We  stand,  Sir,  in  the  light,  in  the  very 


SM  TEmr-THIBD  JJmiVlUUIAlIT  OF  THE 

eye  of  this  reoooeiliatioii  of  humanhy  mod  theology.  The  turn  is 
piopttioos  and  prophetio*  The  spiritaal  life  of  man  is  paaanig 
out  of  the  epoch  of  Jodaisai ;  the  saorian  agee  of  the  spirit  aie 
gone  ;  the  rank  vegetation  of  that  early  period,  the  monsten  that 
wallowed  in  the  manhee  of  a  primeTal  age,  are  extinct.  The 
aaoending  order  reveals  a  higher  type ;  —  the  thought  of  God 
projected  in  the  spiritual  life  of  hnmanity ;  the  spirit  in  num,  not 
formal  and  meehanieal,  hot  setting  forth  manhood  in  joy  and 
strength  and  grace.  It  is  the  age  of  the  harmony  of  many  con- 
tradictions in  the  illostradon  ^t  man  is  the  temple  of  God's 
spirit,  and  that  all  spiritoal  truth  is  to  augment  and  glorify  our 
manhood.  It  is  the  age  of  a  divine  humanity,  and  not  of  a  human 
dirinity.*' 

Bey.  Thomas  Starr  Ejng  then  addressed  the  meeting,  on 
^  The  Philosophy  of  Revivals.'' 
Mb.  Kshq  spoke  as  follows  :— 

**  Mr.  President,  — I  feel  that  the  most  nnpleasant  task  cff  the 
morning  is  intrusted  to  me.  Ton  have  called  me  to  speak  on 
the  philosophy  of  the  revival  movement.  The  task  of  criticism 
is  an  ungracious  one.  It  may  be  said,  therefore,  Why  engage  in 
it?  Is  there  not  something  cheering  to  be  seen  in  this  revival!  I 
Is  there  not  something'  good  that  may  be  said  about  it?  Is  the 
spectacle  of  a  people  so  generally  aroused  to  an  interest  in  re-  1 
ligious  truth  and  spiritual  sendees  as  our  people  have  been, 
across  the  longitudes  from  here'  to  the  Mississippi  and  down 
the  climates  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  be  treated  merely  with 
analysis  and  nice  philosophic  measurements  and  tests  1  Is  it  not 
better  for  a  denomination  of  Christians  to  seek  quickening  from 
the  spreading  fervor,  and  to  mourn  if  it  is  not  thrilled  and  stima- 
lated  by  the  general  vitality,  than  to  complain  because  all  the 
methods  are  not  of  the  purest,  and  because  some  of  the  doctrines 
associated  with  it  look  coarse  in  the  lighf  of  reflective  reason? 

*'  Let  me  say,  then,  at  once,  that  I  believe  a  great  deal  of  good 
has  been  done  by  the  revival  movement.  Hundreds,  perhaps 
thousands,  have  no  doubt  been  permanently  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  God  in  healthful  ways.     But  when  we  have  a  ques- 


AMEBICAK   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  505 

tion  before  us  of  a  system  of  measures,  we  are  not  to  pass  judg- 
ment by  selecting  simply  the  favorable  details,  —  even  though  the 
items  be  thousands  of  renovated  souls.  We  must  not  select  the 
facts,  or  fasten  attention  upon  the  facts,  of  two  or  three  months. 
We  must  look  at  the  whole  influence  of  the  system,  —  its  upper 
and  under  side.  We  must  look  at  the  ejQfect  it  produces  in  the 
course  of  years,  when  its  whole  influence  is  expended  and  can  be 
measured.  We  must  see  its  relations  to  all  the  classes  of  the 
community,  which  Christianity  must  keep  hold  of,  if  it  would  main- 
tain permanent  and  increasing  power  in  civilization.  And  still 
further,  we  must  contrast  the  system,  and  all  the  results  good  and 
bad  that  flow  from  it,  with  the  ejQfect  which  some  other  scheme  of 
influence,  eq[ually  within  the  power  of  the  churches,  might  pro- 
dace,  if  it  were  adopted  and  pushed  with  equal  faith  and  zeal.  We 
must  bring  the  revival  movement  and  method  and  results  to  such 
tests  as  these,  before  we  can  intelligently  indorse  or  judge  them. 

"  But  why  criticise  or  judge  at  all?  Why  bring  up  the  work  in 
which  other  denominations  are  engaged  for  scrutiny  or  cross-ex- 
amination in  a  meeting  like  this?  My  answer,  Mr.  President,  is 
this.  Because  it  is  just  in  the  line  of  our  providential  office  to  do 
so.  We  are  appointed,  I  believe,  to  do  some  thinking  to  help  the 
theory  of  Christianity.  St  Paul  figured  the  Church  as  a  grand 
man.  If  we  accept  his  image,  we  shall  see  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  and  a  great  variety  of  work  to  be  done  to  make  the  organism 
symmetrical  and  potent.  Some  sects  may  stand  more  in  the  stom- 
ach relation,  to  make  new  blood ;  others  in  the  heart  relation,  to 
distribute  it ;  others  in  the  tongue  relation,  to  make  ideas  vocal 
and  diflfusive.  Our  position  is  in  the  brainy  and  in  the  forehead  of 
the  brain,  — in  a  large  degree,  we  may  say,  within  the  organs  of 
causality.  A  large  part  of  our  business  is  to  think,  inquire,  exam- 
ine. We  are  appointed  for  iree  thought,  scholarly  thought,  phil- 
osophical investigation  into  Christian  history,  records,  movements, 
and  theories.  Of  course.  Sir,  I  make  no  such  offensive  and  pre- 
posterous claim  for  our  body  as  that  we  are  the  brain  of  the  relig- 
ious community  in  this  country.  But  I  affirm  that  we  are  predom- 
inantly in  and  of  that  organ,  and  are  set  to  the  work  of  thought  for 
the  general  good.     If  we  retreat  from  that,  if  we  cower  from  that, 

VOL.   Y,   NO.   IV.  43 


506  THIBTT-THIBD  ANNIYERSABT   OF   THE 

if  we  practically  nanx)  w  our  platform  of  anion  so  as  to  be  false  to 
that,  we  are  guilty  of  treason  against  our  call,  and  we  virtaaUy 
commit  suicide. 

**  It  may  not  be  the  most  noble  or  pleasant  office,  but  it  is  oqt 
appointment.    Providence  has  not  set  us  to  the  task  of  organizbg 
flourishing  and  popular  societies  that  shall  be  posts  of  dLBtinctioD 
or  cushions  of  comfort,  —  has  not  set  us  to  the  duty  of  noorishing 
and  perfecting  spiritual  life  within  a  few  parish  enclosures,— so 
much  as  to  the  work  of  stretching  theology,  adjusting  it  to  new 
readings  of  nature,  broader  surreys  of  history,  unprejudiced  cod!- 
elusions  of  natural  religion.    Somebody  has  said  that  God  has 
given  to  the  French  the  dominion  of  the  land,  to  the  English  that 
of  the  sea,  and  to  the  Grermans  that  of  the  air.     Our  diocese  is 
that  of  the  air ;  —  to  encourage  untrammelled  thought,  in  the  faith 
that  truth  is  at  last  the  safest,  as  well  as  the  most  sacred  attain- 
ment ;  to  interpret  spiritual  laws ;  to  show  the  falseness  and  mean- 
ness of  the  underlying  Orthodox  principles  of  the  Divine  govern- 
ment, and  human  nature,  and  the  purpose  of  Christianity ;  and  by 
line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept  of  instruction  and  intel- 
lectual influence,. to  soften  and  broaden  the  dominant  creeds. 

**  When  men  say  to  us,  You  have  no  creed  by  which  an  outsider 
can  tell  what  you  believe,  —  you  have  no  symmetrical  theory  of 
the  character  and  worth  of  Scripture,  of  the  purpose  of  life,  of  the- 
ology, of  destinies  in  the  world  to  come,  —  we  ought  to  say,  Even 
if  it  is  so,  perhaps  our  service  is  to  be  the  more  valuable.  We 
have  been  elected  to  be  explorers,  not  settlers ;  picket-guardsmen, 
not  garrisons  of  the  forts ;  spies  into  new  lands  that  flow  with  milk 
and  honey,  not  camp-followers  in  the  wilderness.  If  Gud  has  pot 
our  chief  men  in  lonely  stations,  at  the  telescopes  that  pierce  and 
sweep  the  unmapped  regions  of  immensity,  let  us  remember,  Sir, 
that  we  might  not  be  engaged  in  any  more  practical  service,  if  we 
were  all  harmoniously  at  work  printing  off  and  distributing  copies 
of  old,  imperfect,  and  accepted  charts. 

**  This,  then,  is  our  justification  for  taking  up  the  revival  move- 
ment in  a  critical  way.  It  is  our  business  to  do  so.  It  is  not  only 
our  call  to  show  why  toe  do  not  join  in  the  movement,  but  to  say 
whether  or  not,  in  our  view,  the  general  Church  is  acting  wisely 


1 


\ 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  507 

in  patronizing  it,  and  seeking  to  institute  it  as^part  of  the  organic 
religious  life  of  the  land. 

**  The  position' which  I  feel  called  to  take  in  this  address,  Mr. 
President,  is,  that  the  Church  of  this  country  is  not  acting  wisely 
in 'reaffirming  the  revival  system  and  methods.  In  the  first  place, 
the  Church  has  lost  about  as  much  as  it  has  gained  by  every  one 
of  the  great  revival  movements  thus  far.  By  the  confession  of 
prominent  Orthodox  students  themselves,  there  was  a  declension 
in  the  ten  years  after  the  Great  Awakening  of  1740,  as  remarkable 
as  the  excitement  that  preceded  it.  If  the  testimony  of  the  most 
wise  and  faithful  pastors  that  have  been  placed  within  or  near  the 
chief  revival  outbreaks  that  have  dotted  the  history  of  the  Church 
since  that  time  could  be  collected,  there  would  be  no  neeid  for  any 
latateroent  of  ours  that  they  have  not  yielded  such  a  balance  of  good 
as  ought  to  have  been  expected,  without  tempest  or  turmoil,  from 
the  steady  forces  of  growth. 

**  And  yet  we  should  do  the  justice  of  saying  that  the  Orthodox 
men  are  not  responsible  for  the  revival  movement.  It  is  not  a 
Aiatter  of  choice  with  them.  It  is  in  the  system.  One  cannot 
readily  see  how  American  Orthodoxy  can  be  carried  on  without 
revivals.  The  fever  element  is  in  its  blood.  It  seems  natural 
and  necessary  that  the  movement  of  the  system  should  be  by 
spasms.  The  conceptions  which  its  theology  gives  of  the  awful 
perils  and  chances  of  human  life,  require  that  all  honest  and  ten- 
der-hearted believers  should  be  insanely  active,  and  up  to  the  very 
highest  possible  tension  of  feeling.  They  are  not  so.  Their  na- 
ture, made  in  harmony  with  a  different  scheme  of  religious  truth, 
forbids  it.  And  every  now  and  then  they  must  make  up  for  the 
guilty  calm  of  an  instituted,  serene  activity  and  influence,  and 
mount  to  the  level  of  intenser  emotion  and  labor  which  the  savage 
doctrine  steadily  demands.  Thus  religious  service  becomes  a 
strain  and  a  collapse.  Nature's  law  of  oscillation  and  periodicity 
is  not  observed.  For  the  revival  does  not  come  as  the  tenth  wave 
of  a  majestic  inflowing  sea,  bat  as  an  earthquake-billow  that  some- 
times rolls  from  the  Pacific  upon  South  American  shores,  not  con- 
nected with  tidal  forces,  but  started  by  the  central  fires,  —  one  rush, 
a  deluge,  and  stagnation ! 


508  THIRTY-THIRD   ANNIVERSARY   OP   THE 

*<  Now  we  ought  to  see,  Mr.  President,  that  our  American  life 
needs  different  treatment  from  this,  —  something  more  dignified, 
more  equable,  more  steady.  It  has  the  disease  of  too  great  excit- 
ability. Its  tendency  in  politics  is  to  fits  and  starts  and  feeling 
and  gusty  enthusiasm,  rather  than  to  slow  and  sure  growth  in  the 
knowledge  and  obedience  of  principles ;  in  literature,  it  shows  fa- 
rious  appetites  rather  than  healthy  tastes ;  in  business,  we  have 
seen  how  it  plunges  into  wUd  activity,  and  turns  from  wise  and 
moderate  promises  of  gain.  The  revival  passion,  so  far  as  it  is 
not  stimulated  by  the  conscience  of  religious  leaders  or  the  policy 
of  sectarian  managers,  is  one  jet  from  the  general  intermittent  fury 
of  the  American  temper.  And  the  spiritual  teachers,  so  far  from 
encouraging  it,  should  oppose  it.  Instead  of  doing  anything  to 
whip  up  or  to  sanction  these  paroxysms  when  they  break  out  iff 
the  spiritual  sphere,  they  should  bend  their  efforts  to  make  steady 
labor  and  regular  results  more  respectable  and  satisfactory.  They 
should  do  somethhig  in  the  domain  and  in  the  name  of  religion,  to 
cool  the  constitutional  fever  in  the  American  frame.  In  the  de- 
partment of  mechanics  what  is  gained  in  power  is  lost  in  time ;  but 
there  is  gain.  In  the  physiological  region,  however,  what  is 
gained  by  fever  is  lost  at  last  both  in  time  and  power. 

"If  I  were  to  attempt  to  go  deeper  into  the  philosophy  of  revi- 
vals, with  a  view  of  alluding  chiefly  to  their  dangers,  I  shoold 
speak  in  harmony  with  a  very  able  article  in  the  June  number  of 
Harper's  Monthly,  on  the  *  Ethics  of  Popularity,'  which  it  was  my 
fortune  to  read  yesterday.     The  influence  of  every  revival,  con- 
ducted as  ours  have  always  been,  is  to  injure  and  degrade  the 
religious  sentiment.      Excitement  on   the  question   of  religion, 
whether  it  be  the  excitement  of  animal  feeling,  the  stirring  up  of 
the  dregs  of  coarse  natures,  or  the  flaming  of  fanatic  passion,  is 
necessarily  taken,  at  the  time,  to  be  an  awakening  of  the  religions 
sentiment.     An  eagerness  to  hear,  to  be  impressed,  to  confess  in- 
terest in  religious  subjects,  is  called  encouraging,   whether  it  be 
the  interest  of  animal  magnetism,  of  fear,  of  nervousness,  of  an 
impressible,  gusty  nature,  or  of  a  sturdy  and  reflective  tempera- 
ment.    Passing  moods  imposed  from  without,  as  well  as  substan- 
tial interest  in  religious  truth  kindled  in  the  privacy  of  the  heart, 
are  accredited  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  509 

^'  We  think  it  caa  be  proved,  Sir,  that  the  whole  atmosphere 
and  stimulants  of  the  revival  season  are  injurious  to  the  permanent 
forces  of  the  religious  sentiment  in  the  community.  They  corrupt 
the  sources  of  power.  Think  of  the  number  of  prayer-meetings 
that  are  demanded  and  provided  for,  —  sometimes  three  or  four  a 
day  in  the  same  church.  Is  it  possible  that  they  can  be  carried  on 
without  lowering  the  ideal  and  degrading  the  influence  of  prayer 
itself?  Prayer,  in  proportion  to  its  depth  and  vitality,  seeks  se- 
clusion, and  is  shy  of  words  that  can  be  overheard.  The  instruc- 
tion and  the  habits  of  Jesus  certainly  lend  no  support  to  these  fre- 
quent and  excited  gatherings  for  the  purpose  of  verbal  supplication, 
which  are  published  in  the  newspapers,  and  are  made  the  tests  of 
piety,  or  of  interest  in  spiritual  things.  Jesus  counselled  privacy, 
^nd  sought  it  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest  spiritual  sentiments, 
and  the  opening  of  the  soul  to  the  infinite  life.  Indeed,  so  far  as 
we  know,  he  held  no  social  prayer-meetings  with  his  disciples. 
Go  into  thy  closet;  shut  the  door;  *be  not  as  the  hypocrites  are, 
for  they  love  to  pray  standing  in  the  synagogues,  and  in  the  corners 
of  the  streets ' ;  pray  to  thy  Father  in  secret ;  —  such  is  the  tone 
of  his  teaching.  And  as  to  his  example,  we  read  that,  *  when  he 
had  sent  ^e  multitude  away,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain  apart  to 
pray  * ;  *  he  withdrew  himself  into  the  wilderness  and  prayed ' ; 
even  in  Gethsemaue,  he  '  saith  unto  the  disciples,  Sit  ye  here, 
while  I  go  and  pray  yonder.'  We  cannot  see  how  the  multipli- 
cation of  meetings  for  social  and  spoken  devotion,  when  so  few 
have  the  gift  of  original  and  quickening  utterance,  and  when  the 
language  must  so  often  be  the  dictate  of  superficial  stimulants  or 
be  pumped  up  and  mechanical,  does  anything  else  than  degrade 
the  service  of  communion  with  God,  and  peril  the  spiritual  sensi- 
bilities of  those  who  engage  in  them. 

**  We  cannot  but  insist  that  the  Church  would  do  far  better  by 
making  praise,  through  hymns  and  music,  the  prominent  and  al^ 
most  exclusive  service  of  worship  in  social  gatherings,  and  by  ed- 
ucating the  people  to  seek  a  lonely  and  private  intercourse  with 
the  Father  as  the  only  real,  deep,  and  quickening  devotion.  Cer- 
tainly, if  anybody  can  contemplate  the  methods  in  which  the  pa- 
pers tell  us  that  all  over  the  country  prayer-meetings  and  inquiry- 

43* 


610  THIRTT-THIED  ANNTVlMtSABT   OP   THE 

meetings  have  been  conducted  recently ;  —  the  speeches  and 
prayers  limited  to  three  minutes,  and  stopped  by  a  tinkle  of  the 
cond actor ^s  bell;  the  reading  of  piles  of  notes  for  the  conversion 
of  indicated  persons,  and  the  offering  of  sapplication  for  them,  as 
though  prayer  were  a  method  of  sacred  sorcery ;  the  asking  of 
young  persons  if  they  *  know  the  Lord' ;  the  solicitation  of  peo- 
ple to  publish  their  most  sacred,  feelings  of  penitence,  or  their 
equally  sacred  glooms  and  distrost  and  scepticism;  the  flitting 
about  of  experts  in  the  system  of  Evangelical  pathology,  treating 
each  *  case '  with  some  peculiar  tincture  of  doctrine,  or  extract  of 
catechism,  or  mixture  of  texts  shaken  together  till  their  partial 
truths  commingle  into  a  lie  (and  I  state  nothing  here  for  which  I 
have  not  ample  facts  to  justify  me) ;  —  if  one  can  contemplate  such 
methods  of  dealing  with  the  religious  nature,  in  a  season  of  excite- 
ment, without  feeling  that  permanent  harm  must  result  to  those 
who  conduct  the  system,  and  those  who  are  victims  of  it,  he  must 
hold  a  conception  of  religion  and  the  religious  sensibilities  that 
needs,  I  think,  to  be  enlarged  and  refined. 

'*  I  must  allude,  also,  Sir,  to  the  degradation  of  the  Bible,  dar- 
ing the  exercises  and  labors  of  the  revival  season.  How  dread- 
fully its  loftiest  words  and  most  sacred  phrases  must  be  treated 
as  hard  instruments  and  counters.  Think  of  such  words  and 
phrases  as  *sanctification,'  *  the  righteousness  that  is  not  of  the 
law,  but  of  faith,'  'the  spirit  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,'  j 
*  there  is  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,'  *joy 
in  the  Holy  Gfiost.'  These  are  utterances  of  the  highest  religious 
genius  and  sincerity,  in  the  highest  moments  of  religious  insight 
and  rapture.  They  are  expressions  that  show  the  uppermost  line 
which  the  religious  sentiment  reached  in  the  great  creative  sea- 
sons, when  Providence  stirred  the  world  with  new  heat  and  up- 
heaving forces  that  changed  the  strata  and  slopes  of  history.  It  is 
not  often  in  our  experience  that  we  are  in  the  mood  to  meet  these 
words  on  their  level,  to  restore  to  them  their  ori^nal  heat,  and 
see  them  break  into  flame.  In  a  revival  time,  speakers  continu- 
ally use  them,  toss  them  about  flippantly,  eke  out  the  poverty  of 
their  own  spiritual  vocabulary  with  them,  —  in  short,  trade  in  them. 

**  One  of  the  great  dangers  to  the  ministerial  profession  springs 


AMEBICAK   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  511 

from  the  amount  of  exercise  and  expression  which  preachers  must 
give  to  the  highest  sentiments,  in  the  discharge  of  their  regular 
duties.  What  added  peril  must  there  be,  in  the  long  strain  of  a 
revival  season,  that  the  most  serious  offices  may  be  discharged  in 
perfunctory  ways,  and  the  spiritual  nature  come  out,  either  har- 
dened by  insincere  and  mechanical  talk  on  the  most  sacred  themes, 
or  scorched  and  dried  by  excessive  and  feverish  stimulants  applied 
to  the  delicate  spiritual  organism  I  In  either  case,  the  sources  of 
living  instruction  and  permanent  religious  power  are  drained  and 
corrupted. 

''  But  let  us  look,  Mr.  President,  more  closely  at  the  promise  of 
permanent  benefit  which  many  see  in  the  revival  movement.  The 
country  is  suffering  from  dearth  of  insight  into  religious  truth ; 
from  slavery  of  intellect  and  soul  to  materialism  ;  from  defect  of 
perception  of  first  principles, —-where  God  is  to  be  found,  how 
his  presence  is  felt,  what  his  true  service  is,  how  his  blessing 
may  be  experienced  in  life.  Our  help  must  come,  not,  from  revi- 
val of  emotion,  but  from  the  education  that  is  given  to  the  emo- 
tion ;  not  from  an  awakening  of  interest  in  spiritual  truth,  but 
from  the  directions  given  and  the  channels  opened  to  that  interest, 
and  its  consequent  effects  on  the  character  of  the  land. 

''  I  know  it  is  often  said,  Sir,  that  there  is  less  sectarianism,  less 
fanatic  heat,  less  machinery,  less  excitement,  less  extravagance,  in 
this  movement  than  in  the  revivals  that  have  preceded  it ;  and  that 
it  is  conducted  with  so  much  soberness,  depth  of  feeling,  and  ab- 
sorbing desire  to  reclaim  men,  that  no  one  can  withhold  sympathy 
from  it  without  indifference  to  religion  and  the  advance  of  Chris- 
tianity. But  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  join  in  this  commendation. 
I  have  attended  many  meetings,  and  I  have  read  all  the  reports  of 
assemblies  and  addresses  that  I  could  gather,  and  I  have  been 
amazed  at  the  poverty  of  insight,  and  unwholesomeness,  yes,  un- 
spirituality  of  sentiment,  they  have  shown.  Here  and  there  a 
speech  from  Rev.  Mr.  Beecher,  or  a  golden  paragraph  from 
Father  Taylor,  would  relieve  the  general  waste,  and  breathe  a 
bracing  air  upon  the  soul.  And  certainly  I  should  rejoice  to 
know  that  a  New  York  theatre,  and  the  largest  hall  in  Boston, 
could  be  open  and  crowded,  every  day  in  the  year,  to  hear  those 


512  THIBTT-THIBD  ANNIYEBSABT   OF  THS 

men  concentrate  their  conviction  and  their  enthusiasm  upon  our 
communities  in  the  service  of  God.  But  the  reports  do  not  show 
that  the  general  Orthodox  sentiment  of  the  land  is  any  more  hope- 
ful. It  is  not  so  fierce  as  it  vras,  but  it  is  as  dreary.  It  is  no 
broader,  and  it  is  even  less  stimulating.  It  has  still  its  chrono- 
logical judgment-day  and  its  local  hell.  Perhaps  the  hell  has 
less  fire  in  it  than  formerly ;  if  so,  it  has  &r  less  grandeur  and 
more  smoke.  One  cannot  read  the  extra  '  Revival  Tribune ' 
without  a  feeling  in  the  soul  of  wading  through  mire.  You  may 
look  almost  in  vain  there,  except  in  the  address  of  Mr.  Beecher, 
for  any  vivid  interpretation  of  the  poverty,  falseness,  and  intrinsic 
retribution  of  a  life  of  irreverence,  profligacy,  cheating,  selfish- 
ness ;  for  any  vital  presentation  of  God^s  love  and  patronage  of 
all  goodness ;  for  any  exhilarating  descriptions  of  the  blessedness 
of  moral  liberty  and  harmony  with  God's  law ;  for  any  fresh  and 
stirring  eloquence  of  the  presence  of  Grod  in  the  struggles  and 
warfare,  the  storm  and  sun-flashes  of  the  bosom ;  for  any  unfold- 
ing of  the  privilege  of  life,  as  the  possibility  of  education  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Infinite  Thought  and  Grace ;  for  any  burning 
words  lighting  up  the  evil  of  sin  instituted  in  social  and  political 
customs  and  law  ;  for  any  outlining  of  justice,  integrity,  charity, 
sweeter  domestic  life,  nobler  neighborly  life,  deeper  friendships, 
more  cordial  philanthropic  service,  as  thd  exhibition  of  a  heart 
blessed  with  God's  favor ;  and  of  the  preciousness  of  a  Christian 
consecration  as  the  fountain  of  these  ;  —  but  safety  is  still  the  word 
,and  motive  that  is  executed  with  all  possible  modulation  and  varia- 
tions in  the  whole  fantasia  of  praying,  note-reading,  and  appeal. 

**  *  Come  to  Christ ' ;  *  get  an  interest  in  Christ '  ;  *  fly  to  the 
cross ' ;  ^  find  the  Saviour ' ;  '  delay  is  dangerous,  for  death  may 
overtake  you  to-morrow ' ;  —  these  are  the  characteristic  calls  and 
warnings  of  the  movement.  The  denunciation  of  hell  and  the 
description  of  its  terrors  may  not  stand  so  prominent  as  in  the 
rhetoric  of  former  *  revivals,*  but  the  idea  that  this  lifeisafidal 
state  of  probation,  and  that  we  are  put  here  to  make  our  peace  with 
Gud  and  to  escape  an  arbitrary  doom  that  begins  at  death,  is  jost 
as  prominent  as  it  has  ever  been ;  and  emphasis  is  laid  as  strooglj 
as  ever  on  the  sacrifice  and  merits  of  Christ,  as  affording  as  the 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  513 

only  protection,  through  our  faith,  from  the  remorseless  system 
of  judicial  penalties  that  hegins  to  play  on  the  other  side  of  the 
tomh. 

"  Now,  Sir,  I  do  not  know  what  ray  brethren  here  think  of  all 
this ;  but  I  cannot  do  anything  else  than  say  that  it  is  poison. 
The  religious  emotion  that  goes  to  the  meetings  may  be  pure  and 
hopeful.  But  when  it  is  met  by  this  kind  of  instruction,  or  is 
stimulated  thus  to  more  intense  vitality,  a  bane  is  taken  into  the 
spiritual  blood  that,  I  believe,  almost  neutralizes  the  good  effect  of 
a  renunciation  of  open  sins.  Just  to  the  extent  that  this  doctrine 
is  absorbed  into  character,  the  manhood  is  injured.  The  person 
may  not  be  a  gross  offender,  as  before,  against  the  commandments ; 
he  may  be  a  frequenter  of  prayer-meetings,  and  a  sincere  ex- 
horter  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come ;  but  he  is  converted  to  be  stunt- 
ed ;  he  is  inoculated  with  a  virus  that  chills  and  shrivels  his 
humanity ;  he  is  turned  from  a  careless,  and  perhaps  generous^ 
hearted  sinner,  into  a  miserable,  starveling  dwarf  of  the  spiritual 
order,  on  the  side  of  the  Lord. 

'*  Not  long  ago  I  read,  Mr.  President,  a  volume  containing 
twenty-five  sermons  recently  preached  in  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn, with  reference  to  the  revival,  by  the  most  distinguished  and 
cultivated  ministers  of  those  cities,  —  all  of  them,  with  two  excep- 
tions, doctors  of  divinity.  Setting  apart  the  discourses  by  gentle- 
men that  represent  the  theology  of  the  '  Independent,'  and  one 
or  two  sermons  by  Methodist  clergymen,  the  average  view  which 
the  others  give  of  human  life  and  God's  government  is  either  in- 
tensely dreary  or  horrible.  Some  of  the  most  powerful  of  the 
discourses  I  read  in  my  library  till  past  midnight.  The  air  at 
last  seelned  full  of  infernal  terrors  and  woe,  and  I  shut  the  dread- 
ful book.  In  a  room  up  stairs  my  little  daughter,  six  years  old, 
was  sleeping,  vnth  whom  I  often  have  the  ipost  sweet  conversation 
upon  God,  and  Christ,  and  the  life  hereafter.  But  I  said  to  my- 
self then,  Mr.  President,  in  excitement  of  soul,  what  I  will  say 
here  with  seriousness  and  deliberation,  that,  rather  than  my  child 
should  have  the  awful  theology  of  the  average  of  that  book 
stamped  upon  her  heart,  I  should  unspeakably  prefer  that  she 
should  grow  up  an  atheist.    As  an  atheist,  the  best  currents  of 


514  THIRTT-THIRD   ANNIYEBSART   OF  THE 

human  nature  would  not  be  corrupted  in  her.  Believing  what 
that  book  teaches,  and  having  her  whole  nature  cramped  and  dis- 
torted into  its  mould,  it  would  not  be  possible  that  her  spirit  could 
have  any  religious  beauty,  cheer,  or  peace. 

**  A  large  number  of  men  and  women,  no  doubt,  do  reject  most 
of  this  venom.  They  are  sound  and  noble  in  spite  of  their  theol- 
ogy. Their  spiritual  sense  is  instinctively  so  delicate  and  healthy, 
that  this  leaven  of  Satan  in  the  bread  of  life  offered  to  them  is 
quietly  cast  out,  before  it  can  pass  into  their  moral  blood.  Bat 
the  majority  take  it  into  their  constitution.  It  becomes  their  wis- 
dom, their  motive,  their  measure  of  God's  character,  their  mould 
of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  life  and  mission,  their  standard  of  the 
worth  and  glory  of  religion  in  this  life,  the  light  of  which  they 
read  the  mystery  of  the  grave. 

'*  And  then,  what  can  they  know  of  the  Infinite  Perfectnesst 
Believing  that  God  has  appointed  a  terrible  and  irreversible  final 
doom,  that  yawns  just  beyond  the  sepulchre  for  every  man  that  has 
misused  the  opportunities  of  this  life  ;  that  he  wUl  never  pity  or 
forgive  any  spirit  he  has  made,  on  the  most  thorough  repentauce, 
through  eternity ;  that  he  will  never  take  any  interest  in  its  spirit- 
ual development  hereafter ;  that  what  is  called  the  wealth  of  his 
love  in  the  Gospel,  is  the  offer  of  salvation  from  a  penalty  he 
has  himself  established  during  the  few  years  of  discipline  here, 
whose  limits  he  has  himself  arranged  ;  —  what  can  they  know, 
under  such  instruction,  of  that  perfectness  of  God  which  is  more 
than  the  sum  of  all  the  holy  and  lovely  qualities  of  human  cha^ 
acter  on  the  earth  ?  What  can  they  know  of  the  worth  of  humao 
nature,  which  was  made  for  boundless  education  in  all  its  faculties, 
and  not  for  rescue  from  Tartarean  imprisonment  in  the  life  to 
come  ?  What  can  they  know  of  the  constancy,  and  certainty, 
and  equity  of  the  spiritual  laws  of  God,  that  sweep  through  this 
world  and  eternity,  —  following  the  soul  wherever  the  soul  goes, 
—  the  same  in  eternity  as  here,  because  they  are  not  outward 
laws,  but  inward,  not  written  on  tablets  or  in  codes,  but  inwrougbt 
in  our  spiritual  substance,  the  basis  of  all  worlds,  making  hell  or 
heaven  for  us  according  to  our  quality,  and  unchanging  in  tiine 
or  latitude,  as  the  force  of  gravity,  or  the   speed  of  light,  is 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  515 

the  same  in  the  spaces  of  the  farthest  nebulse  as  within  the  cir- 
cuit of  the  solar  system  ?  What  can  they  know  of  the  blessedness 
of  consecration,  the  pledging  of  the  will  and  affections  to  the  high- 
est good,  to  God  the  unspeakable  good,  the  Infinite  Father,  that 
he,  and  his  will  and  work,  may  be  served  because  there  is  no  other 
trae  life,  —  not  to  escape  from  hell,  but  that  the  whole  humanity 
which  he  has  given  may  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving 
to  his  love  ?  What  can  they  know  of  the  glory  of  Jesus  Christ, 
seeing  him,  not  as  the  expression  of  the  Divine  beauty  and  grace 
to  all  races,  to  all  times,  to  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  men,  —  for 
he  is  not  that,  on  the  theory  that  makes  this  life  a  final  state  of 
probation,  and  his  religion  a  call  and  a  stimulant  to  safety,  —  but 
seeing  him  as  the  agent,  to  each  generation  of  thirty  years,  of  an 
arbitrary  mercy  of  the  Infinite,  that  sets  in  blacker  relief  the  ven- 
geance which  eternity  cannot  exhaust  or  tire  ? 

^  Does  any  one  say,  Sir,  that  I  exaggerate  or  overcolor  the  im- 
portance, or  the  disease,  of  this  doctrine  and  motive  of  safety  in 
the  system?  Well  now,  suppose  that  it  could  be  knowji,  or  thor- 
oughly believed,  to-morrow,  throughout  all  Christendom,  that  God 
had  not  made  this  world  to  be  a  final  state  of  probation.  Suppose 
that  God  is  just  as  good  to-day  in  himself  as  the  best  Christian  be- 
lieves him  to  be ;  that  integrity  and  charity  and  purity  and  sweet- 
ness of  temper,  right  thinking,  right  acting,  right  voting,  are  just 
as  precious,  noble,  and  sacred  as  the  most  sensitive  conscience, 
tender  heart,  and  loyal  will  sees  them  to  be  now ;  that  life  is  just 
as  great  a  privilege,  sin  intrinsically  just  as  great  a  falsehood  and 
disease,  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  world  just  as  potent,  penetrative, 
and  infallable,  the  publications  of  God  in  nature,  in  Christ,  in  the 
soul,  just  as  sublime  and  moving ;  —  all  religious  truths  and  for- 
ces just  the  same,  only  that  it  should  be  seen  that  God's  mercy, 
does  not  stop  at  the  grave,  that  life  sweeps  on  with  the  same  es- 
sential conditions  and  laws  into  eternity,  —  can  you  fail  to  see 
that  the  spring  of  this  revival  would  be  broken  ?  that  the  animus 
of  its  fervor  would  be  drained  ?  that  the  climax  of  its  eloquence 
would  be  swept  out  of  possibility? 

"  This  shows  its  radical  vice.  Its  working  force,  so  far  as  the 
instruction  and  the  teachers  give  it  character,  is  not  the  glory  of 


516  THIBTT-THIRD  ANNIYEB8ABY   OF  THE 

truth,  the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  need  of  human  nature,  for  its 
health,  to  begin  to  serve  God,  and  be  educated  in  a  spiritual  esti- 
mate of  all  nature  and  all  life.  The  long  arm  of  its  lever  is  selfish 
fear.  Its  fulcrum  is  the  death-bed.  Its  aim  is  the  swinging  of 
men  from  the  edge  of  the  grave,  over  the  abyss,  into  a  mechanical 
heaven.  Ekilarge  the  circle  of  human  probation ;  make  God  just 
as  good  in  eternity  as  he  is  in  time;  let  the  laws  of  order  sweep 
on  to  infinity ;  make  character  the  great  aim,  and  not  ransom  from 
a  stipulated  peril ;  make  Christ  the  expression  of  what  God  t^  fw 
ever,  instead  of  the  mask  which  he  wears  for  a  few  years  in  time, 
during  the  short '  economy  of  grace '  (and  a  marvellous  economy 
of  grace  there  is  indeed  in  the  system) ;  put  religion  on  its  natural 
basis,  as  the  everlasting  truth  for  men  and  families  and  nations, 
for  this  world  and  the  next  and  all  the  future^  —  as  essential  to  hu- 
man nature  as  education  for  the  mind,  light  for  the  eye,  air  to  the 
lungs ;  —  and  you  kill  the  revival ;  you  shrivel  the  inquiry-meet- 
ings; you  instantly  turn  the  Church  over,  as  we  say  it  ought  to 
be  turned,  to  another,  a  broader,  a  wiser  scheme  of  influence  on 
the  world. 

'*  Jiiberal  Christians  cannot  help  looking  with  pain  upon  this 
revival  movement,  as  a  means  of  increasing  the  central  doctrine 
commended  and  active  in  it,  a  low  type  of  religious  character, 
a  type  from  which  nobody  escapes  except  by  being  false  to  the 
symmetry  of  the  theology  he  professes.  They  see  the  peril  in 
which  this  theology,  and  the  type  of  religious  life  it  perpetuates, 
are  involving  the  nation  by  divorcing  the  intellect,  the  literature, 
the  science,  the  sincere,  strong*  practical  life  and  instinctive  excel- 
lence of  the  Saxon  race,  from  the  Church. 

'^  How  often  we  hear  it  said,  as  if  that  ought  to  shut  the  month 
of  Liberal  Christian  criticism,  — '  Surely  you  ought  to  be  willing 
that  men  should  be  made  better !  See  how  many  men,  how  many 
hundreds,  how  many  thousands,  come  forward  to  say  that  they 
have  found  new  life  in  this  awak§^ning,  —  that  they  have  forsaken 
their  sins  and  become  consecrated !  Do  you  find  fault  with  that' 
Can  you  stop  to  criticise  and  nicely  measure  the  proprieties  of* 
movement  that  bears  such  fruits  ? '  Heaven  forbid,  Mr.  President, 
that  we  should  show  any  defect  of  interest  in  the  consecration  of 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  517 

men  to  a  nobler  life  I  But  let  us  not  forget,  either,  that  there  are 
two  sides  to  the  picture.  The  good  thus  done  is  overbalanced, 
first,  as  we  have  said,  by  the  spasm  that  is  recognized  and  accept- 
ed as  part  of  the  necessary  religious  life  of  the  country ;  and  sec- 
ond, by  the  repulsion  of  the  intellectual,  the  thoughtful,  the  unob- 
trusive, the  strong-headed  men  of  the  country  from  the  control  of 
the  instituted  religious  sentiment  of  the  nation.  For  every  man 
permanently  made  a  \t^ise  and  faithful  Christian  by  this  excitement, 
probably  one  will  be  made  a  backslider,  a  formalist,  or  a  hypocrite,; 
and  no  doubt  two  will  be  turned  off  from  interest  in  religious  life, 
turned  out  into  indifference  or  contempt,  by  the  steady  influence 
of  the  system  that  underlies  the  revival,  and  obtains  a  new  lease 
of  power  from  it.  These  men  might  be  saved,  in  large  degree, 
and  made  the  most  efficient  fountains  of  true  Christian  force  in  the 
nation,  by  a  wiser  and  broader  theology  in  the  churches. 

'*  These  are  the  reasons.  Sir,  why  a  l4Jl)eral  Christian  feels  jus- 
tified in  opposing  and  condemning  the  revival  movement,  in  the 
Tery  face  of  the  demonstrated  good  it  does.  Bring  out  the  com- 
plete statistics,  aod  we  are  ready  to  face  them.  Two  souls  are 
killed  by  system,  where  one  is  saved  by  convulsion.  You  see  the 
number  who  are  consecrated  and  made  better.  You  do  not  see 
the  far  greater  number  who  are  alienated  from  Christianity,  who 
are  driven  from  the  churches,  or  who  are  listless  in  them,  sceptical 
in  them,  cramped,  starved,  enraged,  by  the  preaching  that  dishon- 
ors God  and  darkens  the  world. 

*'  Let  any  man  g(f  through  the  West,  and  talk  with  the  men  that 
represent  the  energy  and  future  of  the  great  rising  States ;  let  him 
hear  their  lamentations  over  the  dreariness  and  huskiness  of  the 
theology  that  is  poured  from  the  pulpits,  their  confessions  of  the 
inward  rebellion  and  loathing  with  which,  when  they  go  to  church, 
they  listen  to  its  efiete  traditions,  its  ghastly  philosophy  of  life,  its 
artificial  terrors,  its  theories  of  the  government  of  the  moral  world, 
so  discordant  with  the  simplicity  of  science,  so  foreign  from  the 
clearest  insight  which  our  best  literature  reveals ;  let  him  hear 
them  utter  their  fears  for  the  effect  on  society,  after  two  genera- 
tions more,  of  this  dismal  parody  of  a  Gospel,  and  ask  if  some  nobler 
administration  of  truth  cannot  be  inaugurated  soon  and  widely,  to 

VOL.   V.   NO.   IV.  44 


518  THIBTT-THIBD   ANNIVBR8ABT   OF  THE 

save  the  best  elements  of  their  commiinitieB  to  the  Church  and  re- 
ligion ;  —  and  he  will  see  clearly  enough  that  the  revival  of  religion 
which  we  need  in  this  country  is  something  very  different  from  the 
mental  flaw  and  squall  that  has  swept  over  society  from  the  gray 
northeast.  We  want  the  wind  from  another  quarter.  We  want 
sunlight  with  it,  and  more  oxygen,  the  unveiling  of  a  deeper  heav- 
en, the  pouring  of  richer  color  over  the  world,  the  inspiration  of  a 
manly  health. 

«(  We  want  a  revival  that  will  pour  new  truth  into  the  creeds, 
so  that  the  public  conceptions  of  the  Infinite  character  and  rule,  of 
human  excellence  and  acceptance  with  Grod,  of  the  relation  of  this 
world  to  the  next,  of  the  nature  and  records  of  inspiration,  of  the 
objects  and  spirit  of  Christ,  shall  not  cower,  as  they  do  now,  from 
the  company  of  great  scientific  conceptions  and  revelations,  from 
the  best  intellectual  philosophy,  from  the  most  generously  written 
history,  from  the  noblest  novels,  from  the  highest  modem  art,  firom 
the  pages  of  Shakespeare  and  Schiller  and  Scott  and  Dickens. 
Turn,  Mr.  President,  from  any  of  these  departments  of  thought 
to  read  Dr.  Hodge  on  Romans,  or  Edwards's  sermon  on  Sinners 
in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God,  or  Mr.  Finney's  Lectures  on  Re- 
vivals, and  say  if  you  can  feel  that  you  pass  from  one  sphere  of 
thought  to  another  on  the  same  level.  Say  if  you  feel  that  yoa 
are  going  up  from  subordinate  districts  of  truth  to  the  metropolitan 
science,  the  mighty  sun-science  that  holds  the  others  in  its  range 
and  makes  them  reflect  the  glory  of  its  light.  Say  if  you  do  not 
feel  that  you  have  gone  from  the  splendors  of  day  into  a  subterra- 
nean realm,  —  a  mammoth  cave,  where  the  sacrificial  Church  lives 
with  artificial  torchlight,  writing  out  its  literature  of  dreams 
that  are  haunted  by  the  spectres  of  the  Middle  Ages.  I  maintain, 
Mr.  President,  that  the  conversion  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  in  a 
gust  of  awakened  sentiment,  though  it  be  sincere  and  lasting,  does 
not  compensate  for  the  steady,  organic  mischief  which  the  system 
of  sacrificial  Christianity  is  working  within  the  nation,  by  alienat- 
ing its  literature,  its  best  character,  its  most  hopeful  life  from 
the  Church. 

'<  We  are  often  pointed.  Sir,  with  glowing  emphasis,  to  the 
great  revival  preaching  of  Peter  in  Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pen- 


AHEBICAN  UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  519 

tecost,  when  three  thousand  were  converted  in  one  day,  '  and  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  Buffered  violence,  and  the  violent  took  it  by 
force.'  But  that  was  of  unspeakably  smaller  moment  to  the  inter- 
ests and  future  of  the  Christian  religion,  than  the  hour  in  Arabia, 
perhaps,  when  Paul  was  visited  with  a  large,  liberal.  Christian 
idea  of  the  breadth  of  God's  providence,  and  of  the  naturalness  of 
religion  as  a  filial  sentiment,  that  sloughed  off  circumcisions,  and 
sacrifices,  and  distinctions  of  race,  and  temple  technicalities,  and 
uttered  itself  in  meekness,  and  purity,  and  justice,  and  brotherly 
kindness,  and  charity,  and  the  feeling  that  humanity  is  one.  Then 
the  Christian  religion  rose  to  be  a  power  in  literature.  It  rose  to 
command  the  world's  thought  by  its  imperial  breadth.  And  Paul's 
great  missionary  work,  we  should  remember,  was  not  so  much  to 
found  new  churches,  as  to  stretch  the  theology  of  his  generation, 
that  the  creed  of  the  Church  concerning  God  and  Christ  and  salva- 
tion might  be  more  generous  and  inspiring.  By  these  conceptions 
he  did  unspeakably  more  for  Christendom  than  the  regular  twelve 
Apostles.  We  are  sometimes  tempted  to  feel  that  they  hardly 
thought  him  '  Evangelical.'  Yet  in  those  conceptions  of  his  that 
Grod  was  better,  and  Christian  grace  more  ample,  than  the  first  be- 
lievers coulj  allow,  *  the  kingdom  of  God  came  without  observa- 
tion,' —came  as  a  broader,  silent,  diffusive,  educating  power.  It 
is  a  significant  fact,  that  the  Church  could  not  have  lived  on  the 
theology  of  Pentecost. 

*' And  when  persons  ask  now  what  Unitarianism  has  done  and  is 
doing  for  this  country ;  what  revival  movements,  say  like  that  of 
Whitefield,  it  has  aroused ;  what  wide-spread  influence  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls  it  has  generated,  —  I,  for  one,^  Sir,  am  content  to 
answer.  It  has  given  to  this  country  the  thought  and  volumes  of 
Dr.  Channing.  Other  volumes,  also,  that  are  precious,  it  has 
given  to  our  literature.  Among  which  I  ought  to  name  here  the 
*  Discourses  on  Human  Life,'  by  the  distinguished  preacher  near 
me  (Dr.  Dewey) ,  which  hundreds  of  people  will  confess  have 
been  worth  more  to  them  than  if  every  type  had  been  a  guinea. 
But  it  is  enough  to  say  that  Unitarianism  has  produced  Dr.  Chan- 
ning. Take  three  generations  into  the  account,  —  take  one  full 
generation  into  view,  —  I  believe  there  will  be  no  comparison  for 


520  THIRTT-THIBD  ANNIYEBSABY   OF  THE 

good  between  the  benefit  of  Bach  a  spasmodic  revival-career  as 
Whitefield*s  and  the  mission  of  Dr.  Channing^s  truth.     His  vol- 
umes present  a  new  type  of  Christian  sentiment  and  character.  His 
genius  blew  away  the  Calvinistic  mists,  and  disclosed  a  diviner 
Christ  in  the  Gospel ;  a  more  sacred  and  gracious  presence  in  the 
heavens ;  an  Infinite  who  can  be  worshipped  with  our  whole  hu- 
manity, —  with  awe  and  joy.     It  would  not  be  surprising  if  the 
number  of  persons  whom,  already,  those  writings  have  saved  from 
utter  scepticism,  overbalance  the  number  that  were  permanently 
converted  to  a  better  life  by  Whitefield's  preaching.     And  when 
we  think.  Sir,  of  the  interest  which  Channing's  thought  has 
awakened  in  social  problems  in  this  country,  as  a  part  of  religion; 
of  the  influence  it  has  exerted  in  making  thorough  natural  good- 
ness a  necessary  exhibition  of  piety ;  of  the  money  that,  under  the 
stimulus  of  his  truth,  has  been  consecrated  in  New  England,  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  to  strengthen  good  causes,  and  establish 
institutions  for  which  the  sacrificial  Church  has  shown  and  awak- 
ened little  care ;  —  when  we  notice  the  efifect  which  his  thoaght 
has  wrought  upon  theology  in  other  communions^  —  how  it  has 
slowly  insinuated  itself,  like  heat,  warming  the  air  and  thawing 
the  ice  of  Calvinism,  and  has  contributed  largely  as  a  force  to  that 
more  genial  Congregational  Orthodoxy  in  New  England,  which 
alone  has  saved  that  Church  from  collapse,  under  the  outside  pres- 
sures of  our  public  sentiment ;  —  when  we  learn  how  it  is  working 
as  a  leavening,  positive  agency  in  distant  portions  of  our  country, 
and  in  other  countries  too,  and  foresee  how  much  wider  its  mission 
will  yet  be  in  raising  men^s  conceptions  of  what  the  goodness  of 
God  means,  in  teaching  them  what  human  nature  is,  in  showing 
them  how  welcome  a  wholesome  religion  is  to  its  deepest  instincts, 
in  disclosing  how  sacred  and  simple  the  laws  of  the  soul  are,  and 
what  a  privilege  is  Christian  consecration  to  the  Infinite  Father;  — 
I  say,  Sir,  that  Unitarianism  has  done  more  for  thehuoaan  race  than 
all  the  good  which  fifty  revivals  can  accomplish,  by  putting  Dr. 
Channing's  influence  into  New  England,  and  his  thought  into  the 
literature  of  the  English  tongue. 

**  And  so  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  good  influence  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Arnold  in  England  is  immeasurably  beyond  what  can 


AMERICAN   UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  521 

be  wrought  by  all  the  conversions  of  Mr.  Spurgeon,  even  though 
those  conversions  should  prove  thorough  and  permanent.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  is  vivifying  the  *  turn-or-bum '  theology,  and  disgusts 
one  mind  with  religion  as  an  of&et  to  every  man  that  he  conse- 
crates to  a  pure  life.  Dr.  Arnold's  Christian  manliness,  freedom 
of  thought,  heartiness  and  strength  of  service  as  a  consecrated 
teacher  of  youth,  have  raised  the  type  in  ten  thousand  English 
homes,  and  in  English  literature,  of  what  Christian  belief  and 
Christian  character  are.  And  these  will  work  through  the  whole 
organism  of  English  society  as  an  antagonist  of  scepticism,  as  a 
preservative  against  the  paralyzing  influence  of  sacrificial  theology 
upon  the  best  thought  and  feeling  of  England,  when  Spurgeon 
has  sunk  from  his  little  orbit  below  the  horizon  of  memory. 

'*  We  must  look  at  the  recoil  of  the  gun,  at  the  damage  which 
a  system  of  thought  is  steadily  doing  to  the  sentiment  and  charac- 
ter of  a  community,  at  the  scepticism  it  breeds,  and  the  worldliness 
it  hardens,  and  the  disgust  for  all  religion  which  it  spreads  and 
confirms,  and  also  at  the  bad  type  of  character  which  it  educates 
often  in  its  disciples,  as  well  as  at  its  census  of  consecrated  and 
healthy  converts,  if  we  would  put  it  fairly  into  relation  with  sys- 
tems that  work  in  less  demonstrative  ways.  It  is  thus  alone  that 
we  can  strike  the  balance  of  its  claim  upon  the  gratitude  of  the 
community.  Only  thus  can  we  wisely  decide  whether  its  occa- 
sional undulations  of  power  are  beneficial  to  society.  Judging  by 
these  principles,  a  Liberal  Christian  is  justified  in  condemning  this 
revival,  however  numerous  the  array  of  its  sincere  converts  for 
the  time  may  be. 

"And,  Mr.  President,  it  is  easy,  I  think,  to  see  how  the  Church 
is  wasting  power  and  misusing  privilege  by  its  patronage  of  these 
gusty  movements  and  the  philosophy  of  life  that  penetrates  them. 
Suppose  that  the  force  of  the  Church  which  is  now  concentrated 
by  spasms  in  the  revival  movements  were  put  to  a  steady  interpre- 
tation of  the  value  of  home  education !  Suppose  that,  lowering 
for  a  generation  its  interest  in  dogma,  the  whole  power  of  the  sac- 
rificial pulpit  in  this  country  should  be  condensed  in  teaching  the 
people  that '  conversion '  is  not  the  proper  method  of  progress  for 
the  Church ;  that  in  a  Christian  community  children  ought  to  grow 

V  44* 


522  THIBTT-THIBD   ANKIYEBSABY   OF   THE 

up  with  Christian  characters ;  that  the  homes  are  the  most  sacred 
and  potent  intrenchments  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  that  every  family, 
if  the  atmosphere  of  it  is  genial,  and  its  nurture  wise  and  sunny, 
can  rear  Christian  men  and  women,  pure  hearts  and  dedicated 
wills !  What  if  all  the  aathority,  and  eloquence,  and  suasion  of 
the  pulpit  should  conspire  to  encourage  parents  in  this  work,  —  to 
interpret  the  best  means  of  making  homes  sacred  and  sweet, — of 
blending  in  them  government,  and  instruction,  and  amusement,  so 
that  the  religious  sentiment  should  be  felt  by  the  children,  from 
their  earliest  consciousness,  as  a  quickening,  friendly,  cordial  in- 
fluence, the  light  of  all  truth,  the  warmth  of  all  goodness,  the  tI- 
tality  of  all  strength !  What  would  be  the  result?  How  many 
more  subjects,  think  you,  would  the  Church  have  at  the  end  of  a 
generation,  than  its  present  revival  forays  win  for  it? 

'*  Let  us  hear,  Sir,  what  a  distinguished  Orthodox  clergyman 
of  New  England  (Dr.  Busbnell)  has  written  on  this  very  point:  — 
*  The  more  I  reflect  on  the  particular  type  of  practical  religion 
prevalent  in  our  churches,  the  more  dissatisfied  I  am  with  it.  We 
do  not  seem  to  understand  that  there  is  a  law  of  popidation  within 
the  Church  of  God,  as  there  is  within  a  nation  or  an  empire,— 
one  which,  if  children  were  only  brought  up  in  the  faith,  would 
give  afar  more  rapid  increase  than  we  now  have,  and  finally  would, 
by  itself,  enable  the  Church  to  overpopulate  and  occupy  the  world, 
as  the  Saxon  race  are  occupying  this  Western  continent.' 

**  Think  of  the  sad  revelation  that  is  made  of  the  unhealtbiness 
of  the  religion  that  is  taught,  and  the  unwise  administration  of  do- 
mestic influence,  when  the  census  shows  us  that  the  Church  of 
this  country  is  steadily  losing  its  hold  on  the  young  life  of  the 
land ;  is  throwing  ofiT  the  children  into  half-heathenism ;  and  is 
depending  on  revival  excitements  for  its  recruits,  nearly  half  of 
whom,  too,  must  be  rejected,  before  many  years,  for  unworthioess! 

**  And  let  us  suppose,  Mr.  President,  that,  besides  such  efforts 
to  receive  supplies  from  the  homes,  the  Church  of  this  country 
should  apply  itself,  by  instruction  and  organization,  to  deepen  the 
spiritual  insight,  to  ennoble  the  character  and  perfect  the  civiliza- 
tion of  this  land  !  Suppose  that  it  should  teach  earnestly  spiritual 
]aws,  unfold  the  real  hostility  of  sin  to  human  nature  and  humao 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  523 

peace,  —  interpret  it  in  the  light  of  facts,  not  of  monkish  meta- 
physics, as  a  physiologist  does  disease,  7-  show  how  it  corrupts 
and  dwarfs  the  moral  constitution,  —  show  where  and  why  God 
hates  it,  as  well  as  how  he  hates  it,  —  hy  what  intrinsic  methods 
he  punishes  it,  rather  than  hy  what  extraordinary  methods  he  will 
blast  it  in  another  world,  —  and  hold  up  a  religious  life  as  the 
ripeness  of  all  the  faculties  of  human  nature,  the  consummate 
flower  of  excellence ! 

"  Moreover,  Sir,  suppose  it  should  blend  its  means  to  supply 
evening  schools  for  all  benighted  districts,  homes  of  refuge,  homes 
of  industry,  genial  instruction,  the  religion  not  of  tracts  but  of 
friendly  character,  for  the  most  corrupt  regions  of  our  cities;  sup- 
pose it  should  see  that  the  destitute,  and  the  depraved,  and  the 
discharged  convicts,  and  the  vagrant,  should  have  some  missionary 
work  done  for  them,  not  through  preaching  and  catechisms,  but 
through  sympathy  and  sacrifice ;  suppose  that  it  should  send  hu- 
man hearts,  and  not  white  neckcloths  and  printed  *  schemes  of  sal- 
vation,' close  to  them  ;  —  would  such  an  unfolding,  such  an  organ- 
ization of  Christianity  itself,  be  a  good  substitute,  practically, 
through  one  generation  at  least,  for  the  present  dry  ecclesiastical 
methods  of  tracts,  and  musty  theology,  and  oscillating  revivals  and 
collapses,  to  keep  up  the  spiritual  life  of  the  nation,  to  strengthen 
its  character,  and  drain  its  disease  ? 

"  We  are  obliged  to  turn  from  sympathy  with  this  revival  move- 
ment, and  to  condemn  it,  because,  Mr.  President,  by  its  very  princi- 
ple, it  increases  the  evils  from  which  our  American  life  is  suffer- 
ing :  its  methods  offend  the  modesty  and  dignity  and  secrecy  of 
the  religious  sentiment ;  the  working  doctrine  of  it  is  a  libel  on 
God ;  the  theology  that  animates  it,  and  that  will  be  drilled  into 
its  converts,  is  alienating  the  best  life  of  the  Church,  at  a  more 
rapid  and  fearful  rate  than  the  conversions,  if  sincere  and  lasting, 
can  repair ;  and  the  Church  by  a  different  method  of  preaching 
and  labor,  even  retaining  its  Trinitarianism,  could  do  twenty  times 
the  good  to  the  country  that  it  accomplishes  now. 

**  We  say,  Sir,  that  the  *  awakening'  in  this  country  by  which 
hopes  will  be  reanimated,  and  fresh  life  poured  into  the  popular 
heart,  will  flow  from  the  silent  stealing  of  new  truth  into  our  the- 


524  THIBTT-THIBD  JLlCKiyEBSABY   OF  THE 

ologj.  We  want  such  an  access  of  truth  that  the  general  miod 
can  be  fed  with  a  worthier  conception  of  Grod,  that  will  make  ev- 
ery thought  of  him  inspiring  as  the  dawn  of  the  morning,  and  will 
banish  the  superstition  that  this  life  is  the  final  state  of  probation, 
as  an  insult  to  his  plan  of  eternal  education,  and  a  chimera  of  a  bar- 
barous age.  We  want  truth  that  will  show  his  laws  of  spiritual 
order  to  be  unyielding  and  sweet,  the  same  in  eternity  as  in  time ; 
that  will  make  prayer,  not  the  mechanical  importunity  of  verbal  pe- 
titions, but  the  opening  of  the  soul  to  his  penetrating  grace ;  that 
will  see  his  revelation  in  Christ  as  something  other  than  a  device 
to  show  short  mercy  to  a  convict  race,  —  rather  the  eternal  decla- 
ration of  his  love  through  the  highest  form  of  humanity ;  that  will 
make  all  history  the  drapery  of  his  truth  and  justice,  —  of  which 
the  story  of  Jewish  history  is  the  type ;  and  that  will  thus  make 
consecration  the  only  health,  worship  the  only  wisdom,  and  theol- 
ogy the  queen  science  of  the  universe. 

"  The  descent  of  such  a  religion,  Sir,  for  which  Liberal  Chris- 
tianity is  one  of  the  pioneer  influences,  as  an  organizing  force  in 
our  national  thought,  affections,  and  will,  will  give  us  more  relig- 
ious health,  by  inspiring  more  integrity,  organizing  more  social 
justice,  sweeping  away  foul  laws  and  hideous  slaveries,  sweeten- 
ing domestic  life,  and  enriching  the  moral  landscape  of  the  nation 
with  institutions  that  will  show  how  much  of  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  has  been  absorbed  within  us." 

Following  the  above  speech  of  Mr.  King  was  the  follow- 
ing by  Rev.  Dr.  Dewey,  on  "The  Allies  of  a  Liberal 
Faith.'' 

"  Mr.  President,  —  I  hope  you  will  permit  me,  in  what  I  shall 
say  upon  the  subject  proposed  to  me,  to  go  back  for  a  moment  to 
first  principles.  The  very  word  *  allies '  suggests  the  idea  of  a 
conflict.  The  conflict  here  supposed  is  upon  the  old  question, 
*  What  is  truth  ? '  Now  I  suppose  everybody  believes  that  theie 
is  such  a  thing  as  truth,  —  that  there  is  truth  somewhere  in  the 
world.  Not  to  believe  that,  is  not  to  believe  in  God.  I  suppose, 
again,  every  man  believes  that  he  holds  it.  I  suppose  every  bod/ 
of  Christian  men  believes  that.  Not  to  believe  that  is  to  stultify 
and  disown  itself. 


AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  525 

«  Furthermore,  I  suppose  nobody  denies  that  there  is  an  onward 
tendency  of  thought  in  the  world,  and  that  the  history  of  the  world 
from  the  beginning  has  been  a  history  of  it ;  and  that  this  ten- 
dency has  appeared,  not  only  in  civilization,  in  science,  in  art,  in 
politics,  but  also  in  religion.  I  suppose  nobody  denies  that  Juda- 
ism was  an  advance  upon  Polytheism,  Christianity  upon  Judaism, 
and  Protestantism  upon  Romanism,  and  that  Protestantism  is  em- 
phatically a  school  of  progress ;  —  nobody  in  this  assembly  doubts 
this.  Now  I  do  not  say  that  this  tendency  is  comprehended  or  ex- 
hausted in  the  particular  form  of  Christianity  which  tve  embrace. 
I  believe  that  it  pervades  more  or  less  all  sects.  But  I  do,  and  in 
consistency  must  hold,  that  it  is  more  fully  developed  in  our  ideas 
of  religion  than  anywhere  else.  Yet  I  do  not  say  that  Unitarian- 
ism  is  in  every  respect  a  complete  and  sufficient  type  or  embodi- 
ment of  progress ;  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  entitled  or  decreed,  just 
as  it  is,  to  take  possession  of  the  coming  ages.  I  do  not  say,  by 
any  means,  that  I  am  entirely  satisfied  with  everything  that  passes 
under  this  name.  But  I  firmly  believe  that  some  sure  truths  are 
established  among  us,  and  that  too  in  advance  of  the  general  faith 
of  Christendom  ;  and  I  equally  believe  that  these  are  part  and  par- 
cel of  the  world's  progress.  And  it  gives  me  no  more  concern  to 
hear  that  some  whd  bear  our  name  are  said  to  be  going  too  far  in 
one  direction,  or  that  some  are  falling  back  in  another,  — or  to  hear 
fears  expressed  that  the  movement  is  dying  out,  or  is  at  a  stand- 
still,— than  if  I  were  told  that  the  inductive  philosophy  or  the  Co- 
pemican  system  were  going  too  far,  or  falling  back,  or  dying  out. 
In  fact,  Mr.  President,  I  am  in  a  condition  to  be  content  any  way. 
If  our  construction  of  Christianity  is  false,  then  let  it  die.  If  it  be 
true,  nothing  can  kill  it ;  no,  not  if  every  adherent  it  has  on  earth 
were  to  forsake  it.  But  they  will  not  forsake  it ;  you  and  I  know 
that  they  will  not  forsake  it;  and  I  as  firmly  believe  that  in  its 
great  and  leading  principles  it  will  live. 

"  And  now,  if  I  be  asked  on  what  this  confidence  is  founded, — 
what  are  the  allies  of  this  cause,  —  to  that  point  I  will  speak,  and 
for  a  few  moments  solicit  your  attention. 

"  First,  then,  the  whole  visible  creation,  the  frame  of  nature, 
the  solid  world,  is  an  ally.   .Nature  does  not  speak  of  a  Trinity. 


526  THIBTT-THiaD  ANNIYEBSABT  OF  THE 

In  all  the  lines  that  are  drawn  upon  her  ample  face,  —  all  con- 
verging to  one  centre,  all  pointing  to  one  Infinite  Cause,  —  tfaeie  is 
no  word  written  of  a  Trinity.  Again,  Nature  holds  in  her  bosom 
no  remediless,  no  Calvinistic  curse.  There  are  seeming  evils  in 
her  system,  but  the  more  they  are  studied  and  comprehended,  the 
more  they  are  seen  to  tend  to  ultimate  good.  And,  once  more, 
Nature  has  no  elected  favorites.  She  is  a  mother ;  she.opeos  her 
ample  stores  to  all.  Her  rain  and  her  sunshine  tell  no  tale  o( 
electing  grace,— they  fall  alike  upon  the  evil  and  the  good.  Or 
if  she  punishes,  —as  she  does,  —  it  is  not  according  to  any  arbi- 
trary  selection  of  victims,  but  by  equal  and  impartial  law. 

''  Next,  humanity  is  an  ally  of  our  cause.  Its  instinctive  senth 
ments  are  in  our  favor.  I  know  there  are  those  who  would  think 
this  a  bad  sign ;  but  I  accept  it  as  an  omen.  What  other  good 
cause,  whether  of  liberty,  science,  or  education,  would  not  be  ghui 
to  claim  humanity  as  its  ally  ?  What  other  plea  for  the  right 
would  not  say  to  every  hostile  argument  and  influence,  '  Yainlj 
do  you  oppose  me ;  for  the  instinctive  and  everlasting  seDtifflents 
of  humanity  are  on  my  side.  In  the  common  sense  and  reason  d 
men,  in  the  deep-anchored  conscience,  I  stand  fast  and  sure.' 
But  religion,  we  are  told,  should  disclaim  the  alliance.  Humao* 
ity  is  to  it  an  offence ;  reason  a  stumbling-block ;  and  the  natural 
sense  of  justice  an  unholy  pride.  Slowly  but  surely  humanity  is  titii 
rising  to  resist  that  wrong,  and  to  throw  off  that  hurden  of  ages.  % 
Yes,  Sir,  the  great  humanity  is  coming  to  take  its  place  in  the 
sphere  that  was  made  for  it.  Not  much  longer  will  an  intelligent^ 
cultivated,  thoughtful  man  bear  to  be  told  that  he  must  not  pi» 
tend  to  judge  of  religious  matters,  because  he  is  blind,  because 
nature  is  no  better  than  a  blind  Samson  fighting  against  religioB 
Ay,  a  blind  Sainson,  fit  only  to  grind  in  the  mill,  —  to  grind  oot^ 
material  subsistence  and  revenue  for  religion ;  no  other  pu^ 
does  the  Church  allow  it, — no  other  part  or  lot  in  the  matter. 
Ah,  Sir,  if  religion  were  only  half  as  real  as  Kansas  or  Califitt*i^ 
nia,  men  would  never  submit  to  that  exclusion  from  it !  And  i  k. 
wants  reality  because  it  wants  genuine  humanity.  And  there  9 
no  greater  service  that  we  can  do  to  it,  than  to  deepen  in  the  po^  ^c 
lie  heart  the  sense  of  its  inexpressible  value,  —  to  make  it  felt  tlnty  W 


] 


^, 


AMERICAN   UNITABIAN  ASSOCIATION.  527 

I  compared  with  religion,  compared  with  the  true  and  pure  sense  of 
I  the  everlasting  verities  of  religion  and  humanity,  every  worldly 
.  interest  sinks  to  nothing. 

I  "  Thirdly,  I  look  upon  literature  as  an  ally  to  our  cause.  Lit- 
I  erature  is  the  World's  broadest  and  most  distinct  expression  of  its 
thought.  And  what  is  it?  What  does  it  say  of  religion ?  Phi- 
losophy, history,  poetry,  fiction,  —  what  do  they  say?  Not  one 
Word,  or  almost  not  one  word,  of  the  Church  creed.  Is  it  not  a 
Very  extraordinary  thing?  The  Church  says  that  the  Trinity, 
Ejection,  native  depravity,  and  eternal  punishment  are  not  only  the 
true  doctrines,  but  that  without  holding  them  no  man  can  be  saved. 
And  literature,  the  world's  free  thought,  says  not  a  word  about  it. 
Ct  sturdily  ignores  the  whole  system. 

'*  Accordingly,  public  sentiment,  in  the  fourth  place,  — the  real 
|»ablic  sentiment  of  the  world,  which  is  mirsed  by  literature,  is 
btostile  to  the  Orthodox  creed.  In  other  words,  the  common  sense 
[>f  the  world  is  hostile  to  it  This  is  true  to  an  extent,  I  believe. 
Little  suspected.  I  should  like  to  see  this  day  an  honest  show  of 
bands  on  this  question.  Among  the  reading  classes,  at  least,  I 
^m  firmly  persuaded  that  it  would  be  found  that  the  majority  is 
not  Orthodox. 

*^  1  recollect  that,  some  years  ago,  the  New  Orleans  Picayune, 
iseith  a  larger  circulation  perhaps  than  any  other  print  in  the  South- 
^jvest  frequently  published  sermons  of  Mr.  Clapp's,  and  that,  too, 
sermons  in  direct  and  bold  contravention  of  the  Orthodox  faith.  I 
eaid  one  day  to  a  gentleman  in  New  Orleans : '  How  is  this  ?  Pray 
explain  this  to  me.  A  newspaper,  of  course,  must  depend  on  pop- 
milar  support.*  *  Why,'  said  he,  *  our  public  is  not  Orthodox.  It 
^kes  this  counter-statement. '  The  truth  is  that  the  great,  free  West 
sind  Southwest  is  not  Orthodox. 

^*  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you,  Mr.  President,  that  the  statistics 
«f  spiritualism,  or,  as  I  should  rather  call  it,  spiritism,  furnish  the 
same  kind  of  evidence  ?  Take  either  hypothesis  with  regard  to  it ; 
3et  it  be  a  revelation  from  the  other  world  or  a  reflex  of  this,  and 
^the  conclusion  is  in  favor  of  my  argument.  Manifestly  enough  it 
:i8  only  largely  a  reflex  of  this.  And  what  then  is  the  evidence  ? 
^Why,  that  the  world,  so  far  as  spiritism  extends,  is  mainly  Unita- 


528  THIBTT-THIRD  ANNITERSAltT   OF   THE 

rian.  '  Very  well,'  one  may  say,  *  you  are  welcome  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  spirits.'  But  it  is  not  the  testimony  of  the  spihts, 
that  I  am  speaking  of.  It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  belieye 
in  them.  And  seriously,  Mr.  President,  I  think  it  is  a  Teiy  re- 
markable revelation,  —  a  revelation  altogether  unintentional,  alto- 
gether undesigned,  —  in  circamstances  where  the  witnesses  are 
put  entirely  off  their  guard ;  where,  imagining  themselves  to  stand 
on  the  verge  of  another  world,  and  having  the  less  fear  of  this,  they 
have  spoken  as  they  thought.  And  what  have  they  thought,  — 
these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  believers  in  spiritism,  —  living  Id 
Orthodox  communities,  belonging,  many  of  them,  to  Oithodox 
churches  1  Why,  one  stereotyped  argument  against  them,  brought 
by  their  Orthodox  guides,  is  that  the  spirits  are  heretics.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  they  would  be  if  they  could  speak ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  their  interpreters  are.  There  is,  Sir,  a  substratum  of  public 
sentiment,  which  is  secretly  hostile  to  the  Orthodox  creed. 

**  One  observation  more,  and  I  will  relieve  your  patience.  I  say, 
then,  that  the  most  advanced  thought  in  the  world  is  in  favor  of 
Liberal  Christianity.  Where,  in  the  world,  in  what  countries, 
has  Unitarianism  made  its  appearance!  Not  in  Russia,  ~ not, 
except  in  a  single  instance,  in  France,  —  not  in  Spain ;  but  io 
studious  Germany,  in  cultivated  England,  in  free  Switzerland 
and  America.  Geneva,  Edinburgh,  London,  Boston,  have  led  the 
way  in  this  great  progress  of  thought. 

"  Yes,  Sir,  the  city  in  which  we  are  assembled  —  called  the  cra- 
dle of  liberty  in  America — is  also  the  cradle  of  Unitarianism  io 
this  country.  Mayhew,  the  manly  and  intrepid  asserter  of  free  aod 
liberal  thought ;  Freeman,  gentle  and  sage ;  the  learned  and  elo- 
quent Buckminster;  Channing,  as  full  of  reverence  as  of  geoins; 
John  Lowell,  the  Chevalier  Bayard  of  the  cause  ;  John  Adams,  its 
sturdy  supporter ;  —  these  were  the  pioneers  in  this  country  of 
Liberal  Christianity. 

**  Sir,  there  was  no  faint-heartedness  among  these  men.  They 
did  not  say,  *  What  is  to  become  of  our  faith? '  They  knew  what 
was  to  become  of  it.  Yet  they  had  little  to  cheer  them  beside  their 
own  convictions.  They  could  not  reckon  up  the  allies  of  their 
cause.    They  did  not  think  that  by  this  time  —  yes,  in  thirty 


I 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  529 

years  —  its  adherents,  under  various  names,  would  be  as  numer- 
ous as  those  of  any  church  in  the  country.  They  did  not  think  of 
allies.  They  stood  alone.  They  fought  single-handed.  "  And 
they  fought  a  hard  battle.  Let  us  not  recall  it  with  any  asperity. 
Its  combatants  on  both  sides,  doubtless,  were  honest.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  history  now,  and  may  be  surveyed  with  calmness.  And 
what  is  the  result?  Progress.  And  so  it  will  ever  be.  You  may 
chain  any  other  force,  and  hold  it  fast ;  you  may  chain  giants  in 
irons;  you  may  chain  nations  in  slavery;  but  you  cannot  chain 
free  thought !  ,  You  may  *  bind  Leviathan  for  your  maidens ' ;  but 
you  cannot  *  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades ' ;  you  cannot 
bind  morning  nor  the  morning  star.  When  that  star  rises  above 
the  eastern  hills,  when  the  first,  faintest  streak  of  dawn  touches 
the  horizon,  it  is  all  over  with  the  cause  of  darkness.  Men  may 
build  church-towers  and  stretch  flanking  curtains  to  keep  out  the 
light ;  they  may  build  battlements  upon  battlements  of  creed  and 
authority,  high  as  mountains ;  but  still  the  silent  radiance  steals  up 
the  morning  sky,  —  with  some  clouds  around,  it  may  be,  with 
some  earth-born  mists  dimming  it,  —  but  still  that  shining  light  of 
truth  rises  and  shines,  and  will  shine  brighter  and  brighter  unto  the 
perfect  day." 

The  closing  speech  was  made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows  of 
New  York,  on  "  The  True  Denominational  Spirit,  as  a 
Means  of  overcoming  the  Obstacles  in  the  way  of  our  assum- 
ing a  leading  Position  in  the  Church  of  this  Country." 

Dr.  Bellows  spoke  as  follows :  — 

''  After  men  have  well  eaten  and  drunken,  it  matters  little  how 
poor  the  wine  is  with  which  they  are  served.  I'am  consoled  under 
the  heavy  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  closing  this  great  debate, 
—  the  very  excellence  of  which  has  exhausted  your  attention  and 
my  own  faculties,  —  by  the  reflection  that  my  duty  is  an  humble 
one;  namely,  to  bring  to  a  point  the  pyramid  whose  base  has  been 
laid  so  broadly,  and  which  has  risen  in  such  solid  courses,  —  to 
give  a  practical  direction  and  finish  to  the  great  truths  and  principles 
which  have  been  so  eloquently  and  ably  expounded  by  my  pre- 

VOL.   V.   NO.   IV.  45 


530  THIRTY-THIRD   ANNIVERSARY   OP   THE 

decessors  on  this  platform.  Brevity  is  not  my  forte,  but  I  must 
endeavor  to  bring  my  constitutional  obesity  of  speech  within  rea- 
sonable girth,  for  I  have  a  most  eloquent  adversary  pleading  against 
me,  more  dreadful  even  than  the  finished  and  fascinating  speakers 
who  have  enjoyed  the  freshness  of  your  attention,  —  I  mean  that 
omnipotent  and  universal  orator,  the  stomach,  never  so  convincing 
as  at  this  very  hour,  felt  by  every  one  of  you  to  be  dinner-time. 
Bear  with  me  then  as  well  as  you  can,  while  I  speak  of  the  true 
denominational  spirit  to  be  cultivated  by  Unitarians. 

'*  We  have  commonly  denied,  and  I  think  with  a  true  instinct, 
that  we  are  a  sect,  although  having  an  organization  which  doubt- 
less gives  us  the  usual  sectarian  appearance.  But  if  we  have  had 
sectarians  among  us,  it  is  still  true  that  we  have  not  been,  as  a 
body,  characterized  by  a  sectarian  spirit.  Had  we  possessed  that 
spirit,  we  should  have  done  a  much  more  showy  work ;  for  secta- 
rianism is  zealous,  effective,  proselyting,  confident,  and  popular; 
but  it  is  also  narrow,  exclusive,  partial,  imperfect,  and  short-lived. 
It  deepens  its  channel,  drains  a  large  section  of  country,  and  be- 
comes a  broad  river ;  but  it  stands  separated  by  great  mountain 
barriers  from  all  other  waters,  and  never  grows  to  an  ocean  con- 
necting the  great  continents,  and  flowing  into  the  common  circula- 
tion of  the  globe.  We  have  aimed,  not  so  much  at  advancing  our 
own  body,  as  at  advancing  Christendom  ;  not  at  achieving  sectarian 
triumphs,  but  moving  forward  the  theology  and  Christian  thought 
of  the  whole  world.  Our  ambition  has  been  a  noble  one,  —  to  be 
and  to  represent,  not  a  section  of  Christendom,  but  the  whole  body, 
—  to  assume  the  wide  dominion,  claimed  by  the  Roman  Church, 
on  truer  and jnore  tenable  grounds,  —  in  short,  to  be  the  new  Caih- 
olic  Church,  including  all  Christian  bodies  in  our  charity  and  fellow- 
ship, and  stoutly  maintaining  the  identity  and  unity  of  the  Church 
Universal.  How  to  unite  practical  organization  and  a  lively  zeal 
with  the  toleration,  flexibility,  freedom,  hope,  and  humble  wailing 
on  providence,  which  our  principles  demand,  is  our  diflicult  and 
pressing  problem.  Is  it  possible  to  be  a  denomination,  a  body 
united  within  itself,  wise  in  plans,  zealous  in  labors,  eager  in  prop- 
agandism,  fertile  in  expedients,  creative  in  forms,  and  still  avoid 
a  sectarian  temper,  and  a  narrow,  self-enclosing,  excluding  creed 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  531 

and  policy  1  I  believe  that  it  is  ;  that  we  may  and  ought  to  cher- 
ish a  denominational  spirit,  while  we  discourage  and  disown  a 
sectarian  attitude  and  temper. 

**  We  are  a  denomination.     Providence  has  forced  us  into  an 
advanced  position,  —  a  position  which,  by  theological  affirmations 
and  denials,  separates  us  from  Christendom,  though  it  does  not 
separate  Christendom  from  us.     We  are  cut  off  by  our  Christian 
brethren  from  communion  and  fellowship  with  them ;  but  we  main- 
tain, in  disregard  of  their  fences,  that  we  occupy  the  common 
Christian  domain,  and  are  tilling/fields  wliich  they  will  presently 
occupy  and  thank  us  for  redeeming  to  their  use.     We  claim  to  be 
laboring  and  suffering  in  a  cause  common  to  Christendom,  and  ac- 
cept our  seemingly  isolated  and  enclosed  denominational  position 
as  a  post  of  vantage,  —  an  advanced  post,  mistaken  for  an  enemy's, 
but  in  reality  one  which  is  pioneering  the  way  the  main  army  is  to 
pursue.     It  is  the  special  duties  belonging  to  us  as  a  body  unwill- 
ingly forced  into   a  separate  existence,  which  constitute  our  de- 
nominational responsibilities.     What  can  we  do  to  make  our  pio- 
neer labors  more  efficient,  how  broaden  and  smooth  the  road  for 
our  successors,  how  persuade  more  of  those  who  half  sympathize 
with  our  labors  to  give  us  a  full-hearted  support  and  co-operation? 
"  Up  to  this  time,  our  denominational  existence  and  prosperity 
have  been  weakened  by  the  disintegrating  power  of  the  yet  unhar- 
monized  elements  that  compose  our  liberal  body.     Three  different 
schools  have  developed  themselves  most  naturally  and  honestly 
among  us, — the  Progressives,  the  Hold-fasts,  and  the  Reactiona- 
ries, —  the  philosophic,  the  historical,  and  the  pietistic  Unitarians, 
—  those  who  are  looking  for  light  to  the  future,  those  who  are 
satisfied  with  the  light  around  them,  and  those  who  are  looking 
for  light  from  the  past.     Each  of  these  schools  is  genuine,  and  rep- 
resents an  indispensable  element  of  our  true  life;  but  up  to  this 
time  their  independent  action  has  been  fatal  to  denominational  en- 
ergy.    For,  first,  the  Progressives,  feeling  and  maintaining  that 
our  cause  is  thoroughly  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  have  been  disposed 
to  throw  it  utterly  upon  the  current*of  the  times,  and  trust  it  to 
the  generous  impulses  and*struggling  instincts  of  humanity.''    The 
large  and  hopeful  minds  in  our  body  have  been  so  confident  that 


532  THIBTT-THIRD   ANNIVEBSABT    OF   THE 

• 

literature,  politics,  science,  nature,  and  humanity  were  with  us, 
that  it  has  seemed  to  them  needless  and  presumptuous  to  labor  at 
that  which  would  come  best  and  completest  of  itself.  This  confi- 
dence has  acted  very  much  upon  us  as  fatalism  acts  upon  the  Ori- 
ental mind,  sapping  energy,  discouraging  organization,  and  taking 
all  life  out  of  missionary  enterprise.  It  has  thrown  into  scholar- 
ship, literature,  and  philosophy  what  ought  to  have  gone  into 
practical  preaching,  the  Christian  training  of  the  young,  and  the 
administration  of  an  effective  institution.  The  freest  and  broadest, 
and  constitutionally  the  most  leading  minds  among  us,  have  al- 
most always  withdrawn  .their  personal  influence  and  direct  sympa- 
thy from  our  denominational  interests.  They  have  withheld  their 
presence  and  their  voices  from  our  public  meetings,  and  seemed  to 
feel  that  all  our  direct  efforts  at  propagating  our  influence  were 
insignificant  when  compared  with  the  necessary. and  providential 
spread  they  were  deriving  from  causes  in  universal  operation. 
This  school  has  tended  to  make  us  a  criticism,  an  influence,  bat 
not  a  church. 

**  Next,  the  Hold-fasts,  the  regular  heirs  of  historical  Unitarian- 
ism,  who  think  that  Lindsay,  and  Priestley,  and  Belsham,  Wor- 
cester, Freeman,  Ware,  and  Channing  essentially  completed  the 
purifying  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  laid  down  the  permanent  creed 
-of  our  denomination,  have  in  their  way  hindered  our  influence  by 
localizing  and  confining  it.  This  eminently  faithful  and  conscieo- 
tious  school  —  the  core  of  our  otherwise  vague  and  shapeless  body 
—  has  unquestionably,  within  its  sphere,  done  more  denominational 
work  than  all  the  rest.  It  has  indeed  maintained  the  only  organi- 
zation we  have  had,  published  and  circulated  our  literature,  sent 
forth  whatever  missionaries  have  gone  out,  and  been  always  ready 
to  give  an  answer  for  the  hope  that  was  in  it.  But  having  assumed 
the  position  of  a  sectarian  movement,  an  attitude  of  conscientious 
hostility  to  the  current  creed  of  Christendom,  and  assigned  to  itself 
the  duty  of  converting  the  world  to  the  truth,  by  textual  criticism, 
and  the  unfolding  of  ecclesiastical  history,  it  has  gradually  found 
the  great  tides  of  the  popular  religious  life  of  the  world  flowing  past 
it,  leaving  it  safely  islanded  on  its  impregnable  rock.  It  expected 
a  general  battle,  nay,  invited  it  on  the  ground  it  had  taken,  but  the 
enemy  has  taken  another  route. 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  533 

'^  Its  critical  arguments  are  not  denied,  its  great  and  invincible 
text-books  not  answered  ;  but  somehow  the  questions  it  has  settled 
seem  no  longer  to  interest  the  world.  The  space  it  claims  and 
occupies  is  so  small,  that  the  Church  Universal  sa^s,  *•  There  is 
room  enough  for  me  and  thee.'  '  Excellent,  old-fashioned  Unita- 
rians,' is  its  language,  *  we  respect  you !  we  love  you !  You  are 
safe,  good  people,  —  moral  and  pious.  You  will  never  do  any  harm, 
nor  much  good,  except  to  yourselves.  We  leave  you  to  "  grow 
small  by  degrees  and  beautifully  less,"  in  perfect  confidence  that 
Church  history  will  never  more  be  troubled  with  you.'  Undenia- 
bly,  purely  historical  Unitarianism  is  fast-  becoming  a  local  pecu- 
liarity, a  Boston  notion.  And  while  the  Progressives  are  listlessly 
waiting  to  see  the  spirit  of  our  faith  gradually  creeping  through 
the  general  influences  of  literature  and  science  into  all  other  bod- 
ies, (having  abandoned  the  idea  of  a  Church  of  our  own,)  the 
Hold-fasts,  determined  on  a  visible  and  positive  Church,  however 
small,  but  with  ever  diminishing  hope  of  conquest  or  advance,  take 
up  an  attitude  of  dogged  obstinacy,  will  die  at  their  post,  and,  if 
they  can  keep  the  shingles  on  their  own  roof  whole  while  ihej/ 
last,  are  contented  to  resign  the  discouraging  enterprise  of  propa- 
gandism  to  a  more  fortunate  generation. 

'*  But,  finally,  the  Reactionaries  constitute  the  third  element. 
These  are  they  who,  with  strong  religious  instincts  and  affections, 
—  less  animated  by  intellectual  ideas,  and  less  captivated  with  gen* 
eral  principles  and  universal  philosophy,  —  being  greatly  discour- 
aged at  the  lame  progress  and  dissatisfied  with  the  meagre  influ- 
ence of  Unitarianism,  have  been  thinking  that,  in  the  haste  of  our 
flight  out  of  Orthodoxy,  we  have  perhaps  left  some  of  the  most  pre- 
cious things  behind  us.  They  have  accordingly  been  cautiously 
feeling  their  way  back,  not  from  selfish  or  timid  considerations, 
but  from  instinctive  attractions  to  the  warmth  of  that  pole,  and  in- 
stinctive repulsions  from  the  cold  of  the  opposite  pole,  — the  mys- 
tic and  insoluble  having  more  charm  for  them  than  the  rationalistic 
and  bare.  I  see  no  evidence  of  any  disposition  in  this  element  to 
abandon  its  libeYal  sympathies,  or  go  over  to  the  Orthodox  banners. 
It  seems  to  me  that  it  means,  and  designs  to  be,  only  just  as  Or- 
thodox as  it  can  be  on  Unitarian  ground ;   and  my  conviction  is 

45* 


584  THIRTY-THIBD  ▲NNIYERSABT   OF  THE 

that  this  school  stands  for  an  indispensable  element  in  our  denom- 
inational power,  when  it  shall  presently  develop  itself.  Mean- 
while, however,  it  is  oar  weakest  side,  proclaiming  our  fears  and 
exhausted  resources,  holding  out  flags  of  truce,  and  encouraging 
the  enemy  to  think  we  intend  to  surrender.  Moreover,  it  probably 
is  our  most  deceptive  and  delusive  side,  since  it  embodies  an  atti- 
tude least  natural  and  most  fatiguing,  and  one  which  is  sure  to 
disappoint  those  who  expect  any  Orthodox  fruits  from  it.  The 
tree  has  been  pretty  well  shaken,  and  has  not  yet  yielded  a  single 
windfall  to  those  who  seemed  to  see  our  fairest  fruits  hanging  over 
their  side  of  the  wall.  We  are  confident  that  the  Reactionaries 
have  reached  their  aphelion  without  losing  fidelity  to  their  own 
sun,  and  must  now  swing  into  closer  neighborhood  to  their  sister 
planets. 

**  Thus  we  have  our  three  elements,  each  of  them,  for  different 
reasons,  acting  disastrously  for  the  time  upon  our  denominational 
prosperity.  First,  the  Progressives  and  philosophers,  who  won't 
work  denominationally,  because  they  think  it  unnecessary,  not  be- 
lieving in  organization,  and  thinking  the  world  ours  by  spiritaal 
gravitation.  Second,  the  Hold-fasts  and  historical  Unitarians,  who 
will  only  work  in  their  own  technical  way,  with  one  cold  shoulder 
towards  the  Progressives  and  another  towards  the  Reactionaries, 
stiff,  dogged,  provincial,  and  with  a  disposition  to  give  the  grip  of 
despair  and  death  to  their  heritage  of  faith.  Third,  the  Reaction- 
aries, disgusted  with  the  philosophers,  and  with  no  hope  in  the 
Hold-fasts,  speaking  a  shibboleth  which  deceives  nobody,  and  seek- 
ing to  reanimate  old  phraseology  and  old  methods  in  a  way  which 
is  sadly  discouraging  to  those  who  think  the  dead  should  be  left  to 
bury  their  dead,  while  we  go  and  preach  the  Gospel. 

**  Now,  to  overcome  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of  our  taking  a 
leading  position  in  the  Church  of  this  country,  these  three  elements 
must  be  harmonized  and  united.  It  must  be  seen  and  felt  that 
they  form  the  three  natural  and  grand  dimensions  of  our  body,  and 
that  they  must  learn  to  tolerate,  respect,  and  love  each  other.  In- 
tellect, heart,  and  will, —  speculation,  memory,  and  action, the 

future,  the  past,  and  the  present,  —  are   to  be  represented  and 
united  in  this,  as  in  every  vital,  spiritual  body.     We  may  thank 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION.  535 

the  great  instincts  which  have  maintained  the  existence  of  those 
elements,  in  our  denomination,  even  in  their  struggling  and  mutu- 
ally confounding  shapes.  Where  should  we  have  heen  to-day,  if 
the  whole  army  had  marched  in  any  one  of  its  three  corps  ?  We 
owe  it  to  the  Progressives  that  our  denomination  has  heen  kept 
hroad  and  large  and  in  sympathy  with  the  times,  that  our  wings 
have  heen  strong  and  bold ;  to  the  Hold-fasts,  that  it  has  not  grown 
all  wings,  without  body  or  legs,  —  that  our  denomination  has  re- 
tained shape  and  organization,  however  rudimentary,  and  now  pre- 
sents a  skeleton  regiment  of  faithful  and  well-drilled  officers,  wait- 
ing only  to  be  filled  up  with  men  drawn  from  the  people  ;  to  the 
Keactionaries,  that  we  have  not  lost  our  relations  to  the  rest  of 
Christendom,  our  filiation  to  the  past,  and  our  right  to  claim  the 
heritage  of  religious  experience,  symbolic  truth,  and  sacred  pres- 
tige delivered  down  by  the  Christian  generations  gone  to  their 
reverent  successors. 

*'  And  now,  to  take  our  true  position  and  do  our  grand  work, 
we  roust  have  all  these  three  elements  in  still  larger  measure,  and 
in  consciousr  harmony ;  —  a  faith  not  only  in  the  liberal  tendencies 
of  the  Church,  but  also  in  the  religious  tendencies  of  the  world, 
with  a  confidence  that  the  future  is  ours,  which  will  keep  us  broad, 
open,  and  brave ;  a  faith  in  ourselves,  as  the  representatives  of  an 
historical  necessity,  a  providential  body,  separated  for  a  special 
work,  having  universal  relations,  which  will  give  us  shape  and 
order,  vigor  and  edge,  organific  and  positive  existence,  and  so 
create  the  germinal  beginning  of  a  Protestantism,  carried  out  so 
thoroughly  that  it  perfects  itself  in  an  affirmativeness  in  which  all 
negations  are  forgotten  ;  and  a  faith  in  the  divine  and  providential 
character  of  the  past  history  of  our  religion,  a  sympathy  with  the 
actual  Church  which  shall  teach  us  respectful  appreciation  of  its 
opinions  and  symbols,  and  enable  the  rich  experience,  the  holy 
unction,  the  aromatic  fragrance,  the  precious  significant  traditions 
of  the  historic  Church,  (the  real  organic  body  of  Christ,  the  living 
vine  full  of  Christ^s  blood,  the  line  of  true  apostolic  succession, 
aside  from  which  no  church  life  is  possible,)  to  pour  themselves 
into  our  veins. 

**  The  true  denominational  spirit  will  teach  lis  how  to  unite 


586  THIRTY-THIRD   ANNIVERSARY   OF  THE 

these  three  elements — honest,  natural,  necessary,  each  and  all — 
in  one  vital  whole.     We  need  larger  justice  done,  by  the  Hold- 
fasts and  the  Reactionaries,  to  the  temper  and  mind  of  the  Pro- 
gressives.   Let  their  nature  and  tendency  be  freely  admitted  to  be 
rationalistic,  philosophic,  optimistic,  pantheistic,  fatalistic,  and  so 
far  dangerous,  but  still  Christian  in  spirit  and  intent.     So  only 
could  freedom  of  inquiry,  so  only  the  rights  of  the  intellect  and 
the  aspirations  of  the  soul,  be  vindicated.     So  only  could  a  moun- 
tain-weight of  discouraging,  ethical,  dry,  and  merely  logical  con- 
clusions, enshrined  in  catechisms  and  creeds,  and  intrenched  in 
custom  and  years,  be  overthroiMcn  and  pulverized.     It  is  a  tardy 
justice  done  to  the  world,  as  Grod's  world,  to  human  nature,  as 
God^s  image,  to  history,  as  God*8  chariot,  to  external  nature,  as 
the  garment  we  see  God^  by,  to  society,  commerce,  life,  as  divine 
products  and  instruments,  that  has  exaggerated  itself  in  these 
tendencies.     It  must  not  be  concealed,  that  we  have  got  back 
the  imm^iate  presence,  the  immanent  spirit,  the  Holy  Ghost,  — 
which  had  seemingly  been  grieved  out  of  our  creed,  —  by  means 
of  this  philosophy ;  and  say  what  we  will  of  it,  the  greenest  and 
most  thriving  end  of  our  rod  is  that  which  is  full  of  transcendental 
sap.     Nay,  this  philosophy,  which  threatened  to  dissipate  and  de- 
stroy us,  distancing  us  hopelessly  from  Christendom,  is  perhaps 
the  closest  tie  we  have  to  other  living  Christian  bodies,  and  the 
medium  of  the  easiest  communication  with  them,  since  the  most 
opposite  dogmas  are  now  freely  translated  by  philosophic  Chris- 
tians from  both  sides  into  a  Platonic  language,  common  to  all. 
Certainly  many  must  have  ceased  to  be  Christians  at  all,  nay, 
must  have  placed  themselves  in  direct  opposition  to  Christianity, 
as  a  system  of  thought,  had  they  not  found  in  this  philosophy,  so 
easily  sliding  into  pantheism,  a  means  of  reconciling  faith  ami 
philosophy,  authority  and  freedom.    But  notwithstanding  the  most 
hearty  concessions  to  the  merits  of  the  Progressives  and  their  is-j 
fluence,  it  is  certain  that  they  furnish  alone  very  poor  material}] 
for  a  practical  and  working  faith,  very  few  beams  and  rafters  forJ 
Church.      People  already  Christianized  and  churched  may  fifl^l 
enlargement  and  elevation  in  this  school.    Sweet  dreamers  chs 
ing  poets,  fine  scholars,  may  flourish  on  this  thin  soil  and  on 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  537 

rare  atmosphere.  But  the  common  people  cannot  find  their  bread, 
nor  their  raiment,  nor  their  rest  here.  There  is  nothing  positive, 
fixed,  visible ;  nothing  commanding,  arresting,  and  direct:  nothing 
tender,  domestic,  familiar.  All  is  generalization,  impersonality, 
and  vagueness.  The  critical  and  pressing  facts  of  personal  sin, 
individual  weakness,  and  want,  are  ignored  by  this  grand  philos- 
ophy, and  human  nature  cries  out  from  the  midst  of  it,  *  I  freeze, 
I  tremble,  I  faint.' 

**  And  here  odght  to  come  in  the  Hold-fasts,  with  their  positive 
and  sharply-defined  ethics  and  theology,  offering  moulds  to  the 
vague  thoughts  which  the  Progressives  have  aroused ;  tying  up 
to  the  stall  and  feeding  the  wild  creatures  that  forget  that  philos- 
ophy has  a  sharp  winter  that  yields  no  food,  as  well  as  a  balmy 
summer  with  fruit  on  every  bush ;  supplying  working  apparatus 
and  handy  machinery,  —  thoughts,  reasonings,  and  methods,  level 
to  the  ordinary  and  sound  understanding,  —  and  hardening  into  sub- 
stance and  shape  the  fiuid  and  wandering  notions  of  the  liberal  body. 
When  the  vigorous,  practical  understanding,  the  practised  skill  in 
organization,  of  the  conservative  Unitarians,  who  so  fearlessly, 
learnedly,  and  bravely  —  yea,  and  so  successfully  —  led  the  old 
battle  for  a  rational  creed,  and  carried  off*  and  established  so  many 
free  churches  in  Massachusetts,  shall  arouse  itself  to  its  old  cour- 
age and  zeal,  —  shall  call  the  new  philosophy  to  sharp  account, 
receive  its  inspiration  while  it  corrects  its  vagueness,  acknowledge 
and  accept  its  magnificent  force  while  it  insists  upon  confining  it 
within  a  working  channel  and  directing  it  upon  the  wheels  of  a 
specific  church  institution,  —  we  shall  have  a  new  and  glorious 
denominational  revival.  At  present,  the  Hold-fasts  are  saying, 
'  We  see  no  prospect  of  doing  anything ;  we  have  no  visible  fu- 
ture. But  we  will  be  faithful  to  our  convictions;  we  can  set  our 
teeth,  stiffen  our  joints,  and  die  Unitarians.  God  may  call  for  this  * 
testimony,  which  is  all  we  can  offer.  He  perhaps  will,  hereafter, 
turn  our  faithfulness  to  his  own  account,  and  if  he  do  not,  at  the 
worst,  it  shall  not  be  our  fault.*  It  is  a  noble  fidelity.  But  why 
this  despair?  Why  not  say,  and  learn  to  think,  that  Unitarianism 
as  such  did  not,  at  the  start,  embrace  all  the  elements  necessary 
to  become  a  popular,  and  if  not  a  popular,  then  not  a  catholic  and 


588  THIRTY-THIRD   ANNIVERSARY   OP   THE 

universal  faith  ?  Why  not  acknowledge  that  ethical,  positive,  and 
critical  qualities  prevailed  fatally  in  historic  Unitarianism,  and  that, 
in  spite  of  its  undeniahle  truth,  its  equally  undeniable  partiality, — 
its  want  of  passion,  breadth,  all-including  experience,  of  faith  in 
the  great  imponderable  and  iinfixable  elements  in  the  life,  social, 
ecclesiastical,  and  individual,  —  it  was,  with  all  its  fine  working 
machinery  and  admirable  hereditary  order,  incapable  of  propagating 
its  existence  beyond  two  generations?  Still,  it  has  a  quality  which 
no  other  part  of  our  body  possesses,  —  a  formative,  systematizing, 
ordering  faculty.  It  is  solid  and  impregnable ;  and  it  has  fairly 
commenced  that  coral  island  in  the  midst  of  the  ocean  of  modern 
agitation  and  unrest,  which  is  to  become  a  continent  in  time. 

*'  But  neither  Progressives  nor  Hold-fasts  can  give  us  a  lead- 
ing position  in  the  Church  of  this  country,  without  the  aid  of  the 
instincts  and  ideas  represented  by  the  Reactionaries.     This  school 
is  unwilling  to  be  cut  off  from  the  Church  Universal.     It  refuses 
to  see  only  folly  and  mistake,  superstition  and  ignorance,  in  the 
creed  of  the  past  and  in  the  formulas  of  living  Christendom.   It 
wisely  maintains  that  the  dogmas  of  the  Church  have  not  been 
accidental  or  capricious,  and  that  the  gi:^ at  outlines  of  the  Catho- 
lic or  Universal  Church,  —  the  doctrines  which  have  won  the, 
heart,  touched  the  conscience,  and  elevated  the  life  of  ages,- 
cannot  but  contain,  and  roughly  at  least  shape  forth,  the  essentia! 
and  permanent  truths  of  the  Gospel.     It  unites,  therefore,  in  no«j 
of  the  sweeping  charges  of  fanaticism,  irrationality,  absurditrJ 
which  have  too  often  disgraced  our  criticism  of  Christendom.  Jj 
denies  all  hostility  to,  or  rivalry  with.  Orthodoxy.      It  claims  ti 

the  nurture  of  our  branch  is  derived  from  its  connection  with  4  s' 

th 

Us 


main  vine,  of  which  it  claims  to  be  only  the  latest  growth ; 
instead  of  desiring  to  be  cut  off  and  planted  in  fresh  soil,  itbl 
'every  section  and  knot  and  twist  and  turn  of  the  dear  and  sacHB  ^^ 
stock  which  bears  it,  and  tastes  in  its  own  sap  a  fragrance  andeB  ^H 
quisite  distillation  of  juices  which  nothing  less  than  the  ChristiB  ^^r 
life  of  ages  could  have  communicated  to  the  heavenly  plant.  ■  ^^^^ 
understands  that  a  religion  cannot  be  grown  once  a  century,  aofl  ^"^ 
Church  built  every  thousand  years.  It  despises  the  shallowlB^f^ 
about  the  Church  of  the  past  and  the  Church  of  the  future,  theS^^ 


AMERIOAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  539 


w 

^Hhitrch  and  the  new  Church,  ihe  leligio 

^^■Kgion.  It  kiiuH's  nothing  of  a  church,  and  a  religion,  but  only 
^^kr  Church,  and  ihs  religion.  The  old  Church  renewed,  the  ono 
religion  revived,  is  its  hope  and  ila  aim.  It  would  just  as  soon 
tlimk  of  refashioning  society  from  its  fuundalions,  as  uf  rebuilding- 
'.lie  Cliurch  froTii  ils  corner-atone,  or  lecasling  religion  from  ila 
lay.  And  in  all  ihia,  the  Reactionaries  announce  and  represent 
Tccious,  indispensable,  urgent  truth,  too  often  sadly  overlooked 
iiid  Bupereilionely  ignored  by  the  Progressives,  and  only  innper- 
t*.icily  underftotiJ  Liid  felt  by  ihe  Ilnld-fasla.  But  this  ia  in  part 
rJue  to  the  olftnsivc  and  indiacriminate  way  in  which  the  Reac- 
nonaries  ur^e  ilieir  ideas,  and  to  the  disposition  they  show  to  pay 
more  aitenLion  to  ilie  joint  they  make  with  Ihe  old  stock,  than  to 
lie  growth  iliey  reach  afierwards.  They  have  forgotten  that  out 
Liaia  virtue  and  mission  lie  in  the  chavge  we  produce  in  the  gen- 
.  ral  direction  and  character  of  the  Church  Universal  ;  that  outs  ia 

I  providential  era  of  reformation,  a  crisia  and  juncture  in  the  com- 
lion  Christian  life  uf  the  world  ;  and  that,  while  we  determinedly 
'.I'l-p  up  <iur  vitui  connection  and  identity  with  the  whole  past,  we 
.Liiist  insist  (ipon  nn  ecoleaiaatical  metem psychosis.  The  vine  de- 
iiiiLnda  a  new  trellia;  the  old  truth  claims  a  fresh  expression ;  the 
'  liuri'h,  a  lhorou!:ti  rehabilitation.      Tenderly,  reverently,  with 

.ireful  prcservatinii  of  every  sound  part,  of  every  slill  significant 
I'lirnae  and  symbol  anij  form,  ought  this  renewal  to  be  made.  But 
i^iade  il  must  be;  and  not  without  offence,  not  without  conlroveisy, 

lOt  without  much  passionate  earnestness  and  Protestant  vigor,  can 

II  be  made.  Thers  must  not,  therefore,  be  too  good  an  under- 
.t'.inding,  too  tender  a  billing  anJ  cooing  between  the  liberals  and 
Jic  leaders  of  the  established  Orthodoxy,  if  anything  radically 

useful  is  to  be  elfected.  Nor  must  the  sincere  and  pious  venera- 
i.iin  for  the  eesenlial  truths  and  dogmas  of  the  Christian  ages  row 
i.ipsed  away,  confuse  itself  with  reverence  for  the  very  terms  and 
"irmulaa  in  wliich  tliey  most  conveniently  carried  the  universal 
iiilh.  We  nii<:ht  just  as  well  make  our  trunks  now-adays  in 
Lo  shape  of  aadiile-bags,  because  our  fathers  always  travelled 
I  in  horseback,  and  had  no  other  convenient  method  of  carrying 
ilieir  wardrobe.     We  do  not  intend  to  give  up  '  being  clothed 


640  THIRTY-THIRD   ANKIYERSART   OP   THE 

and  in  our  right  mind,'  because  we  abandon  their  fashion  of 
portmanteau. 

**  The  Reactionaries  are  too  much  under  the  common  error  of 
the  Church,  the  very  error  which  we  are  bom  to  explode,  that 
the  world  is  for  the  Church,  and  not  the  Church  for  the  world. 
Christianity,  religion,  the  Church,  Christ,  God,  have  no  interests 
of  their  own,  or  rather,  their  interests  are  so  absolutely  secure 
that  they  need  no  looking  after.  It  is  as  true  of  every  part  of  the 
Church  as  it  is  of  the  Sabbath,  '  It  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  it.'  What  we  need  to  do,  is  to  bring  the  Church  to  the 
service  of  the  world,  to  get  Christ  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of 
men.  And  it  is  perfectly  plain  to  the  emancipated,  that  intellect- 
ual, formal,  ecclesiastical  obstacles  have  accumulated  before  the 
Church  door  and  around  the  person  of  Christ,  until  the  world  at 
large  is  unable  to  cross  the  threshold,  or  to  catch  any  attractive 
glimpse  of  the  Master.  The  living  masses,  the  green  humanity 
that  will  fashion  the  future,  are  beginning  to  say,  '  Down  with 
the  Church !  it  is  a  bulky  ruin  that  cumbers  the  ground;  we  want 
the  earth  it  covers  for  new  structures.  Away  with  your  phantom 
Christ !  he  has  had  his  turn ;  give  us  a  new  Messiah.'  But  with 
this  frantic,  dissatisfied,  and  destructive  cry,  the  thoughtful  ear 
catches  sobs  of  deep  religious  want,  hears  plaintive  yearnings  for 
religious  rest,  and  knows  well  that  Christianity  has  everything 
the  masses  are  clamoring  and  grieving  for,,  if  it  could  only  make 
them  look  at  the  thing  itself,  and  not  at  these  wearisome,  effete, 
and  unhappily  associated  misrepresentations  of  it.  The  Reaction- 
aries underrate  most  sadly  the  vast  extent  of  popular  infidelitj, 
the  terrific  sum  of  permanent  disgust  and  hatred  of  the  old  state- 
ments of  the  Gospel  truth,  which  now  make  the  popular  admin- 
istration of  religion  null  and  void  over  half  of  Christendom. 
Nothing  is  to  be  done  for  the  most  needy  and  imperilled  part 
of  Christendom,  until  the  Liberal  faith  is  embodied  and  com- 
mended in  such  a  way,  and  by  such  rites  and  such  an  administra- 
tion, as  will  regain  and  satisfy  a  now  hopelessly  alienated  and  self- 
willed,  a  thoroughly  emancipated  and  wild  humanity.  Let  tbe 
Reactionaries  digest  this  fact,  and  it  may  soften  their  rigor  to- 
wards the  Progressives,  who  live  and  have  their  being  in  tli« 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  541 

Strength  of  this  conviction.    Let  them  feel  that  our  mission  is  not 
to  respectable,  established,  socially-digested  believers,  but  to  vig- 
orous, sceptical,  half-barbaric  unbelievers,  and  they  will  think 
less  of  pleasing  the  religious  vtrorld,  than  of  converting  and  saving' 
the  irreligious  world. 

*^I  do  not  say  that  it  is  easy  to  blend  these  three  important 
elements  of  the  Church  in  the  nineteenth  century  into  a  denomi- 
national unity,  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  uniting  the  three  great 
powers  of  our  own  vague  and  self-neutralizing  body  into  a  com- 
mon force ;  but  the  body  that  does  first  unite  faith  in  the  future 
with  faith  in  the  past,  and  comprehensiveness  with  zeal  and 
organization,  will  inherit  the  earth.  It  looks  very  much  as  if 
the  Broad  Church,  consisting  in  England  of  the  new-school  Epis- 
copalians, and  in  this  country  of  the  new-school  Congregational- 
ists,  were  making  a  fairer  and  more  attractive  bid  for  the  people's 
heart  than  we  are ;  as  if  they  were  truer  to  our  principles  than 
we  ourselves,  and  were  able  to  put  our  abstractions  into  forms 
visible  and  palpable  to  the  popular  senses.  After  we  have  fought 
the  battle,  they  seem  likely  to  run  away  with  the  victory.  Tak- 
ing our  results,  and  guided  by  our  lights,  without  sharing  the 
odium  of  our  battle-cries  or  our  image-breaking,  they  seem  pre- 
paring to  carry  the  world  after  them.  Well,  let  us  thank  God 
that  anybody  can  do  this.  Still,  I  confess,  and  am  not  ashamed 
to  confess,  a  natural  and  intense  yearning  to  see  this  work  done 
by  those  who  have  encountered  the  scorn  and  indignation  and 
excommunication  of  Christendom,  in  proposing  and  beginning 
it,  —  by  those  who  can  do  it  best  and  most  thoroughly,  and  who 
are  best  entitled  to  the  glory  and  privilege  of  it.  We  have  within 
ourselves  all  the  elements  and  materials  of  this  success,  —  a  style 
of  theological  thinking  which  is  rational,  scientific,  and  thor- 
oughly frank  and  honest,  —  a  power  of  stating  the  resufts  of  this 
thinking  in  a  manner  Scriptural  and  ecclesiastical,  in  genuine 
connection  with  an  historical  and  religious  past,  and  with  all  the 
reverence,  tenderness,  and  vitality  of  the  past  decanted  into  the 
present, —  a  method  of  organizing  this  thought  and  temper,  in  an 
efiicient,  popular,  working  institution,  a  devoted,  zealous,  working 
church  order,  capable  of  raising  up  and  inspiring  its  own  teachers 

VOL.   V.   NO.    IV.  46 


642  THIKTY-THIRD   ANNIVBR8AKT  OF  THE 

and  missionaries,  and  of  winning  and  holding  the  masses.    I  say, 
we  have  all  these  elements  now,  but  not  cordially  united.    We 
have  great  and  satisfying  freedom  of  thought,  but  it  is  not  revei^ 
ent  to  the  past,  nor  eminently  Christian  and  in  the  right  line  of 
descent ;  nor  is  it  fragrant,  tender,  rich  in  sacred  tradition  and 
phraseology ;  it  does  not  visibly  blossom  out  of  the  Church  vine. 
We  can  see  this  freedom  in  a  man  like  Robertson,  united  with  all 
these  assumed  incompatibilities,  —  and  what  an  instructiye  spec- 
tacle it  is  for  us !     Again,  we  have  tenderness  to  the  past,  and 
solicitous  ingrafting  of  the  libera]  shoot  into  the  parent  vine ;  but 
unhappily  it  is  usually  connected  with  timidity  of  progress  and  dis- 
paragement of  reason  and  human  nature.    We  are  beaten  by  noble 
specimens  at  home  and  abroad  in  this  direction  ;  although  nobody 
can  deny  in  our  own  distinguished  brothers,  the  authors  of  the 
little  works  on  Regeneration  and  Prayer,  most  rare  and  finished 
examples  and  guides  in  the  union  of  these  qualities.     Again,  we 
have  organization,  strenuous  and  energetic,  but  too  prosaic  and 
unimpassioned,  too  spectral  and  colorless,  too  much  afraid  both  of 
the  new  and  of  the  old,  of  memory  and  of  imagination,  to  satisfy 
the  wants  of  the  people,  or  to  captivate  their  religious  affections 
and  spiritual  passions.     We  have  consequently  made  no  signifi- 
cant and  encouraging  mark  upon  the  country  up  to  this  time  as 
a  Church,  whatever  we  may  have  done  as  a  principle,  a  sentiment, 
or  a  protest.     Either  of  the  other  branches  of  the  liberal  body, 
Universalism  or  Christianism,  has  succeeded  better  than  we  in 
winning  the  popular  heart,  as  a  Church  ;  for  the  reason  that  pas- 
sion and  organizatiop  will  always  outrun,  and  ought  to  outrun, 
thinking.     But  neither  of  these  can  carry  the  country.     No  thin, 
one-idea  system,  no  mere  recoil  on  old  extravagances,  no  mere 
embodiment  of  a  temporary  phase  of  political  and  social  life,  no 
lower-class,  nor  middle-class,  nor  upper-class  adaptation  of  faith, 
can  carry  the  country.     Nothing  short  of  a  faith  broad  as  hnmah- 

m 

ity,  rich  as  history,  comprehensive  as  society,  and  capable  of 
meeting  and  uniting  all  political,  social,  and  national  circum- 
stances, will  take  the  leading  place  in  the  Church  of  this  country. 
We  must  look  for  other  allies  than  the  outlaws  and  recusants  of 
Christendom,  cordial  as  is  the  welcome  and  brotherhood  we  hare 


AMERICAN   UNITAEIAN  ASSOCIATION.  543 

with  them.  Our  allies  are  not  sects ;  but  minds  and  hearts  every- 
where that  acknowledge  God  and  Christ  in  history  and  in  the 
Church,  and  are  resolved  to  lay  liberty  and  life  at  their  feet,  be- 
cause they  believe  God  and  Christ  the  most  devoted  friends  of 
liberty  of  thought  and  of  a  living  faith. 

"  No  hope  is  more  futile  than  the  expectation  of  building  the 
mere  humanitarian  and  philanthropic  instincts  and  passions  of  the 
age  into  a  church,  or  a  substitute  for  a  church.     The  honest  zeal 
to  realize  political  equality,  the  honest  indignation  at  the  arro- 
gance and  authority  of  privilege,  the  general  desire  to  comfort, 
heal,  elevate,  which  are  distinctive  of  our  age,  although  con- 
tinually asserted  to  be  based  on  religious  convictions,  and  to  be 
derived  from  religious  aspirations,  are  really  ideas  not  in  or  from 
the  region  of  divine  faith,  but  in  and  on  the  plane  of  use,  of 
morality,  of  economy.     Political   and   social    philanthropy,  and 
Christian  brotherly  love,  are  not  even  similar  ideas ;  for  the  most 
earnest,  zealous,  and  hearty  political  and  social  reformers  are  often 
painfully  deficient  in,  and  ignorant  of,  the  whole  spirit  and  con- 
duct of  the  second  commandment.     There  is  great  reason  for 
saying  that  the  self-dependent  and   democratic  temper  of  the 
times  is  highly  unfavorable  to  the  sense  of  God,  the  habit  of 
worship,  and  the  recognition  of  man's  need  of  Christ.     We  are 
to  hail  the  philanthropy  of  the  times  as  beautiful,  hopeful,  and 
praiseworthy  on  its  own  independent  grounds,  but  not  as  the 
matrix  or  the  product  of  faith  ;  —  on  the  contrary,  as  often  simu- 
lating it,  or  deceiving  those  who  receive  and  represent  it,  as  if  it 
were  the  substance  of  religion,  which  it  is  more  and  more  proving 
itself  every  day  not  to  be.     Nor  is  the  half-poetic,  half-prosaic 
attempt  and  promise  to  convert  the  soul  into  an  altar,  nature  into 
a  Christian  temple,  and  life  into  perpetual  worship,  entitled  to 
any  better  confidence,  when  ofifered  as  a  substitute  for  positive 
religious  institutions,  customs,  habits,, and  symbols.     When  ex- 
perience becomes  the  only  schoolmaster,  and  stars  and  trees  taRe 
the  place  of  primers  and  spelling-books,  the  woods  may  become 
our  only  temples  and  the  leaves  our  only  Bible.     But  while  the 
positive  and  professional  secular  education  of  man  continues  to  be 
thought  more  and  more  necessary,  his  religious  education  will 


544  THIRTY-THIRD    ANNIVERSARY   OP  THE 

hardly  be  abandoned  to  instinct  and  accident.  Too  long  have  we 
been  drifting  at  the  mercy  of  general  principles,  carried  wherever 
a  bold  generalization,  a  generous  antithesis  might  lead,  —  forced 
by  a  merciless  logic  based  on  assumptions  to  concede  silly  and 
perilous  conclusions,  —  more  anxious  to  be  consistent  than  to  be 
sane  and  sensible.  The  only  thing  in  which  man  is  really  strong 
is  in  common  sense ;  and  when  in  his  pride  he  affects  to  have 
better  sources  of  guidance  than  this,  he  invariably  philosophizes 
himself  into  absurdity.  The  healthy  and  balanced  mind  bravely 
defies  all  charges  of  inconsistency,  so  long  as  common  sense  justi- 
fies its  separate  and  contending  assertions.  It  may  not  see  bow 
the  truths  it  adopts  are  capable  of  harmony,  but  it  does  not  doubt 
that  they  are  both  truths  for  all  that.  When  a  principle  leads  to 
a  practical  absurdity,  it  i^  no  more  to  be  followed  than  a  good 
road  when  it  brings  up  against  a  dead  wall  or  ends  in  a  bog. 
Unitarians  have  continually  imperilled  and  lost  their  cause,  be- 
cause of  their  great  ambition  to  be  consistent  philosophers  rather 
than  men  of  common  sense  and  practical  wisdom  ;  and  until  the 
conceit  of  following  great  principles  into  little  conclusions  is 
exorcised,  they  will  want  the  reputation  for  good  sense  which 
is  ihe  real  touchstone  of  public  confidence. 

**  Am  I  not  right  in  saying,  that  in  religious  statesmanship, 
generalship,  and  episcopal  skill  we  are  weak  and  futile?  How 
little  have  we  done  to  comprehend  our  mission,  and  to  fulfil  it! 
How  poor  the  bond  that  unites  the  clergy  with  the  laity  in  any 
common  action,  exterior  to  mere  parish -doings!  How  small  the 
number  of  active  laymen  who  feel  any  interest  in  or  responsi- 
bility for  our  cause,  as  a  public  one !  The  purse  of  the  body  does 
not  hang  inside  the  Church,  and  that  is  the  only  pendulum  that 
can  truly  measure  the  interest  or  the  confidence  of  the  laity  in  the 
operations  of  the  organizing  portion  of  the  denomination.  I  be- 
lieve the  laymen  think  the  glergy  a  set  of  impracticables,  — excel- 
lent and  devoted  in  their  private  places,  but  without  any  wisdom 
to  contrive,  or  much  faith  to  execute,  any  scheme  of  public  and 
united  action,  —  riders  of  hobbies,  slaves  of  sick  consciences,  poor 
politicians,  more  afraid  of  losing  their  own  independence  than  of 
not  gaining  the  heart  of  the  world.     How  slender  the  hope,  how 


AMEBICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  545 

frigid  the  enthusiasm,  of  our  best  laymen !  Th»y  seem  to  think  the 
Unitarian  denomination  will  hold  out  about  as  long  as  they  shall, 
and  *  after  us  the  deluge/ 

'^  Of  the  immediate  practical  measures  to  be  adopted,  to  give 
success  to  liberal  religious  principles,  I  will  suggest  in  conclusion 
two,  —  one  bearing  upon  the  attractiveness  and  power  of  our  faith 
where  it  is  known,  the  other  upon  its  diffusion  in  regions  where 
it  is  wholly  unknown.  The  first  is  to  supply  the  need  of  a  liturgy, 
embodying  a  worship  rich,  musical,  symbolic,  as  much  as  possible 
after  the  pattern  of  the  liturgies  already  in  use,  courageously  im- 
proved, and  then  as  far  as  may  be  universally  adopted,  and  especial- 
ly in  all  new  churches.  Protestantism  will* die  of  anti-formality, 
which  is  anti-huftian  nature.  Catholicism  can  fioat  all  her  errors 
on  the  mighty  tide  of  her  humane  and  wise  ritual,  especially  when 
stupid,  philosophic,  utilitarian  Protestantism  ventures  to  ignore 
nine  tenths  of  human  nature  in  her  religious  usages  and  ministries. 
In  the  decay  of  dogma  and  the  truce  of  controversy,  the  Church 
which  has  the  best  worship  will  have  the  most  disciples.  Even 
now  the  Episcopal  Church,  opposed  by  its  origin  and  associations 
to  the  tastes  and  spirit  of  this  country,  has  the  healthiest  and  most 
promising  growth  of  all  churches,  by  mere  for«e  of  her  liturgy. 

**To  unite  the  preaching  of  a  progressive  and  independent  creed 
with  the  worship  of  a  symbolic,  fixed,  and  multifarious  liturgy, 
would-  be  a  combination  of  attractions  quite  irresistible.  A  liturgy 
would  suitably  resist  the  unwholesome  individualism  of  our  church- 
es and  our  people,  furnish  a  basis  for  the  indoctrination  of  children, 
connect  the  public  and  private  worship  of  households  by  a  common 
book,  correct  the  disturbing  influence  of  idiosyncrasies  and  defects 
of  taste,  diminish  the  labors  of  ministers,  dignify  feeble  parishes 
and  imperfect  administrations  of  religion,  enable  congregations 
without  preachers  to  carry-  on  public  worship  by  readers,  add  va- 
riety, charm,  and  dignity  to  our  Sabbath  services,  and  form  a  gen- 
eral denominational  bond  throughout  the  whole  country.  If  great 
difficulty  is  anticipated  in  framing  a  liturgy  by  reason  of  diversities 
of  sentiments  and  ideas,  let  as  many  as  can  agree  in  a  broad, 
historic,  and  ecclesiastical  statement  unite  in  a  liturgical  expres- 
sion of  it,  and  leave  the  minority  to  go  on  in  their  independence. 

46* 


546  THIRTT-THIKD   ANNIVERSARY   OF   THB 

We  should,  in  my  judgment,  gain  ten  times  Over  all  that  could  be 

lost. 

'*  The  second  measure  suggested  is,  the  immediate  adoption  of 
an  itinerant  ministry.  Itinerant  ministries  are  not  called  for  in 
all  states  of  society,  nor  in  all  crises  of  opinion.  Nor  are  they  the 
best.  But  considering  the  present  state  of  religious  opinion  in  this 
country,  the  wide-spread  indifference  to  prevailing  sects,  the  gen- 
eral complaint  of  the  current  creeds  it  seems  to  me  that  masses  of 
common  people  are  waiting  for  a  word  that  we  only  are  prepared 
to  speak,  and  that  clear,  strong,  earnest  voices,  enunciating  the  re- 
sults of  Unitarian  thinking,  would  find  a  vast  and  cordial  and  bless- 
ed welcome  among  the  common  people.  I  do  not  see  how  any- 
thing short  of  a  movement  like  Wesley's  can  accomplish  the  results 
we  aim  at,  and  I  believe  that  the  first  truly  earnest  man,  who  is 
called  by  the  spirit  of  God  to  make  devout  proclamation  of  Liberal 
Christianity  on  the  hill-sides  and  in  the  groves  of  the  country, 
particularly  in  the  Middle  States,  will  find  himself  unexpectedly  at 
the  head  of  a  magnificent  reformation.  Let  those  who  deny  the 
power  of  our  ideas  to  animate  men  to.  this  kind  of  self-sacrificing 
and  faith-trying  labor  give  them  up  at  once.  If  they  have  not 
this  power,  they  afre  worthless;  mere  show-ideas,  fine-weather 
Christianity,  —  not  working  ideas,  not  living  and  triumphant  ideas, 
not  ideas  worth  our  further  thought.  I  believe  in  them  as  having 
all  the  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  all  the  missionary  urgency, 
all  the  imperativeness,  all  the  saving  efiicacy,  all  the  ability  to 
raise  up  and  send  forth  their  own  teachers  and  propagandists.  If 
an  itinerant  ministry  do  not  soon  arise  from  an  inward  necessity 
among  us,  the  sceptre  will  have  departed  from  us,  and  other  bear- 
ers will  be  left  to  carry  the  ark  of  the  Lord  into  the  wilderness 
that  waits  for  its  coming.  May  God  give  us  grace,  while  it  is  yet 
time,  to  seize  our  great  opportunities,  —  for  never  was  so  glorious 
a  work  waiting  to  be  taken  up  ;  never  was  so  mighty  a  host  ready 
to  be  given  into  the  hands  of  so  small  an  army,  as  that  which  now 
stands  all  over  this  country,  unconsciously  inviting  the  summons 
of  Liberal  Christianity  to  a  glad  and  complete  surrender." 

Afler  Dr.  Bellows  had  concluded  his  speech,  the  Presi- 


AMERICAN   UNITARIAN   ASSOCIATION.  547 

dent  stated  that  opportunitj  would  now  be  afforded  for  spon- 
taneous remarks,  if  any  person  present  was  disposed  to  ad- 
dress the  meeting.  As  no  one  arose  to  speak,  the  President 
called  for  the  report  of  the  nominating  committee.  Through 
its  chairman,  the  committee  reported  the  following  list  of 
officers,  who  were  then  unanimously  elected  by  ballot. 

Executive  Committee, 
Eev.  Edward  B.  Hall,  D.  D.,  President, 

EeV.  EuFUS  p.  StEBBINS,  D.  D.,    ')    ;^.       r>       'J     . 

'  '    >•  Vice-jTresidents. 

Hon.  E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  ) 

Rev.  Henry  A.  Miles,  D.  D.,  Secretary. 

Calvin  W.  Clark,  Esq.,  Treasurer, 

Rev.  Frederic  H.  Hedge,  D.  D., 

Rev.  William  R.  Alger, 

E.  p.  Whipple,  Esq., 

Hon.  Henry  B.  Rogers, 

Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln, 

Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  D.  D., 

Rev.  George  W.  Hosmer,  D.  D., 

Rev.  Cazneau  Palfrey,  D.  D., 

Rev.  William  G.  Eliot,  D.  D. 

Rev.  Dr.  Hill  offered  the  following  resolution  :  — 
"  Resolved,  That,  receiving  with  regret  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lo- 
throp's  emphatic  refusal  to  stand  as  candidate  for  the  office  of 
President  of  this  Association,  we  cannot  permit  him  to  retire 
from  this  office  without  expressing  our  hearty  thanks  for  the 
ability  and  fidelity  with  which  he  has  long  discharged  its 
duties,  and  our  best  wishes  for  his  health  and  continued  use- 
fulness." 

After  some  impressive  remarks  from  Rev.  Dr.  Gannett, 
who  referred  to  the  unsurpassed  executive  ability  of  the  re- 


548  PHILIP   GANGOOLY. 

tiring  President,  the  above  Resolution  waa  unanimously 
adopted.  Dr.  Lothrop,  in  reply,  thanked  the  Association  for 
its  appreciation  of  his  services,  and  assured  it  that  he  should 
not  cease  to  feel  the  deepest  interest  in  its  continued  pros- 
perity. 

On  motion  of  Rev.  John  Cordner  of  Montreal,  the  fol- 
lowing resolution  was  also  unaminously  adopted :  — 

^^  Resolved,  Tliat  while  we  recognize  the  eminent  and 
faithful  services  rendered  to  this  Association  by  Messrs.  Fair- 
banks, Fearing,  and  Rogers,  who  have  declined  a  further 
appointment  on  its  Executive  Committee,  we  cannot  allow 
this  occasion  to  pass  without  putting  on  record  an  expression 
of  our  gratitude,  and  our  best  wishes  for  their  prosperity  and 
happiness." 

The  meeting  was  then  dissolved. 


PHILIP   GANGOOLY. 

FiiOM  a  paragraph  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  on  a  previous  page,  our  readers  will  learn 
who  this  individual  is,  as  also,  from  the  account  of  the  late 
annual  meeting  of  the  Association,  they  will  be  informed  of 
his  unexpected  arrival  in  Boston.  Some  circumstances  at- 
tending that  arrival  are  of  sufficient  interest  to  justify  a  brief 
notice  here.  As  it  was  known  that  the  ship  Sabine,  Captain 
Hendee,  in  which  he  was  passenger,  might  be  expected  in 
Boston  about  the  end  of  May,  there  were  eyes  that  daily 
scanned  the  arrivals  at  this  port.  It  so  happened  that  the 
Sabine  entered  the  harbor  Sunday  evening.  May  23d,  but  a 
report  of  her  arrival  was  not  seen  in  the  papers  of  Monday 
morning.     All   day  on   Monday  Mr.    Gangooly   remained 


PHILIP   GANGOOLY.  549 

alone  on  board  the  ship,  feeling  as  if  no  one,  in  this  new 
and  strange  world  to  which  he  had  come,  cared  in  the 
least  for  him.  Our  heart  bled  when  we  heard  of  that 
day's  homesickness.  On  Tuesday  forenoon  Mr.  Gangooly 
was  conducted  to  21  Bromfield  Street,  and  thence  to  the 
church  in  Bedford  Street.  His  arrival  there  has  already 
beeip  described.  The  change  from  Monday's  loneliness  on 
shipboard  to  the  glad  welcome  accorded  on  Tuesday  by 
thousands  of  beaming  faces  at  the  church  was  most  strik- 
ing, and  drew  forth  the  remark  from  our  Bengalee  visitor, 
"  I  was  then  so  happy  that  I  could  not  distinguish  whether 
I  was  in  the  United  States  or  in  the  heavenly  state." 

Since  his  arrival  he  has  occupied  apartments  procured 
for  him  at  25  Allen  Street,  and  ha*  received  daily  instruc- 
tion from  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale,  in  return  for  lessons  given  in 
the  Bengalee  and  Sanscrit  languages.  Mr.  Gangooly  ap- 
pears to  be  well  informed  in  all  the  elements  of  a  good  Eng- 
lish education,  and  discovers  great  quickness  of  perception 
and  retentiveness  of  memory.  He  has  addressed  several 
congregations,  among  others  Rev.  Mr.  Hale's  and  Rev.  Mr. 
BartoFs  in  Boston,  and  contributions  have  been  taken  up  in 
aid  of  his  education.  His  brief,  somewhat  broken,  but  al- 
ways artless  and  touching  addresses,  have  been  received 
with  many  expressions  of  interest,  while  those  who  have 
had  the  pleasure  of  personal  intercourse  with  him  have  been 
drawn  to  him  by  the  sincerity  and  affectionateness  of  his  na- 
ture. For  ourselves  we  have  regarded  it  as  a  privilege  that 
we  have  seen  him  at  our  home,  and  have  heard  from  his 
own  lips  the  story  of  his  early  life,  of  his  conversion  to  the 
Christian  faith,  and  of  his  interest  in  that  blessed  Gospel 
which  never  seemed  to  us  so  precious  as  when  seen  with  the 
background  of  this  man's  experience.  Captain  Hendee  tells 
us.  that  physically  Mr.  Gangooly  is  hardly  a  representative 


550  BEY.  AUGUSTUS   B.  POPE. 

of  the  native  Bengalee ;  but  that  he  has  a  full  average  intel- 
ligence and  strength  of  character. 

One  thing  we  wish  to  say  with  great  distinctness.  We 
thank  Mr.  Dall  for  sending  us  this  specimen  of  the  converts 
he  is  making.  "We  do  not  wonder  he  feels  a  deep  attach- 
ment for  the  race  here  represented.  We  have  no  doubt 
that  a  new  interest  in  our  India  mission  may  be  dated  £rom 
the  arrival  of  "  this  living  epistle  from  Asia." 

Plans  for  securing  a  home  for  Mr.  Gangooly  have  not  yet 
been  definitely  settled.  A  year's  residence  in  the  family  of 
some  country  clergyman  seems  desirable.  We  shall  be 
grateful  for  suggestions  that  may  help  us  to  .find  the  best 
place  for  him. 


REV.  AUGUSTUS  R.   POPE. 

The  subject  of  this  notice  was  one  of  the  most  zealous, 
industrious,  and  useful  ministers  in  our  religious  connection. 
Few  were  better  known  or  more  respected  for  earnestness 
of  purpose  and  devotion  to  duty.  The  life  which  seems 
here  to  have  closed  prematurely  was  a  finished  life,  if  we 
judge  it  by  works  attempted  and  done ;  yet  it  was  such  a 
life  as  we  could  ill  afford  to  lose,  and  many  of  its  plans  were 
yet  unaccomplished.  It  has  left  an  excellent  and  satisfac- 
tory record. 

Augustus  Russell  Pope  was  the  second  son  of  Lem- 
uel Pope,  Esq.,  well  known  for  a  long  term  of  years'  as 
a  merchant,  and  afterward  as  the  President  of  one  of 
the  principal  insurance  companies  in  the  city  of  Boston. 
He  was  born  in  that  city  in  January,  1819 ;  was  edu- 
cated partly  in  the  public  Latin  School,  and  partly  in  the 


REV.   AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE.  551 

privatQ  academy  of  Mr.  D.  G.  Ingraham ;  was  trained  re- 
ligiously in  the  Sunday  School  and  Church  under  the  pas- 
toral care  of  Rev.  Dr.  Lowell;  entered  Harvard  College 
with  honor  in  the  summer  of  1835 ;  and  was  graduated  from 
that  institution  in  the  class  of  1839.  Though  his  college 
course  was  not  marked  by  special  proficiency  in  studies,  yet 
he  was  prominent  among  his  classmates  in  many  ways,  was 
a  leader  in  athletic  sports,  a  ready  debater  in  their  societies, 
and  was  intrusted  by  them  with  delicate  and  responsible 
duties.  He  prepared  the  sentiments  for  their  fraternal 
meetings,  and  framed  the  resolutions  and  arranged  the  -cer- 
emony when  the  class  was  called  to  the  funeral  of  any  of  its 
members.  This  interest  in  his  classmates  continued  una- 
bated to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  followed  the  fortunes  of 
every  one,  near  or  far,  with  steady  solicitude,  kept  up  with 
many  of  them  a  regular  correspondence,  and  -was  indefati- 
gable in  his  efforts  to  maintain  the  ancient  class-friendships. 
A  class-scholarship,  by  which  the  annual  expenses  of  tuition 
of  some  deserving  student  might  be  met,  was  one  of  his  fa- 
vorite projects ;  and  among  the  graduates  at  Cambridge  of 
the  present  year  is  one  to  whom,  through  his  pastor's  exer- 
tions, this  assistance  has  been  secured. 

The  inventive  tastes  and  remarkable  mechanical  skill  of 
Mr.  Pope  seemed  to  designate  him  as  an  engineer  or  an 
architect;  and  if  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  had  been 
established  at  the  time  of  his  graduation,  he  might  have 
been  one  of  its  pupils.  In  default  of  any  bias  toward  the 
professions  of  law  or  medicine,  he  determined  before  leaving 
College  —  somewhat,  indeed,  to  the  surprise  of  his  friends 
—  to  enter  on  the  study  of  theology,  and  became  a  member 
of  the  Divinity  School  at  Cambridge.  His  doctrinal  convic- 
tions were  from  the  beginning  decided,  nor  did  he,  waver  in 
his  attachment  to  Unitarian   opinions   and  the  Unitarian 


552  REV.   AUGUSTUS   R,  POPE. 

cause.  He  had  no  inclination  to  the  then  prevalent  ration- 
alism ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did  his  dislike  of  rationalism 
ever  lead  him  to  borrow  the  phraseology  of  Calvinism,  from 
which  he  was  quite  as  far.  He  studied  more  in  the  practical 
duties  of  the  minister's  profession  than  in  its  speculative  sub- 
jects, and  was  especially  interested  in  the  teachings  of  Rev. 
Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  who  was  his  model  of  a  true  pastor  and  a 
Christian  man.  This  indifference  to  abstruse  theological 
topics  gave  him  leisure  to  gratify  his  love  for  mechanical 
pursuits,  and  his  use  of  the  lathe  and  file  was  hardly  less 
diligent  than  his  use  of  the  pen.  A  miniature  steam-engine, 
so  small  that  he  was  obliged  to  make  the  tools  first  by  which 
he  could  work  upon  it,  yet  perfect  in  its  action  and  in  all  its 
parts,  proved  his  ingenuity  and  his  patience.  Great  num- 
bers of  visitors  came  to  his  study  in  Divinity  Hall  to  see 
and  admire  this  singular  toy,  which  he  was  often  tempted  to 
destroy,  from  the  feeling  that  it  was  abstractuig  time  from 
his  proper  professional  -study. 

His  theological  course  was  finished  in  July,  1842.  After 
a  few  months  of  interval,  he  received  and  accepted  a  call 
from  the  First  Congregational  Society  in  Kingstonf  Mass., 
where  he  was  ordained  on  the  19th  of  April,  1843.  In 
June  following,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Lucy  A.  Meacham, 
daughter  of  Colonel  George  Meacham  of  Cambridge.  The 
Society  over  which  he  was  settled  was  of  moderate  size,  the 
house  of  w^orship  was  large,  old-fashioned,  uncomfortable, 
the  last  specimen  of  a  style  of  architecture  now  extinct  in 
New  England,  and  the  religious  condition  of  the  parish 
was  such  as  to  need  all  the  force  of  an  energetic  and  judi- 
cious minister.  Mr.  Pope  did  not  disappoint  the  hope  of 
those  who  expected  a  new  religious  zeal  as  the  result  of  his 
settlement.  He  took  vigorous  hold  of  every  branch  of  par- 
ish work.     Congregations  increased,  social  meetings  were 


REV,   AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE.  '       553 

instituted,  the  Sunday  school  assumed  %  different  aspect, 
many  additions  were  made  to  the  number  of  communicants, 
and,  excepting  the  ancient  edifice,  all  things  in  the  parish 
became  new.  Nor  did  Mr.  Pope  confine  himself  to  strict 
parochial  work.  He  identified  himself  immediately  with 
the  interest  of  the  town,  took  part  in  its  public  meetings, 
was  ready  to  do  double  or  treble  duty  on  its  committees, 
and  braved  the  suspicion  of  other  sects  in  his  zeal  for  the 
public  good.  He  did  not  stop  to  take  counsel  of  prudence 
when  there  were  abuses  to  be  remedied  or  wrongs  to  be  rec- 
tified, but  he  pressed  his  positions  and  carried  them,  before 
he  apologized  for  or  explained  them.  The  six  years  of  his 
residence  in  Kingston  were  years  of  remarkable  changes 
and  improvements  in  that  town,  most  of  which  were,  in  a 
great  measure,  due  to  his  activity.  When  he  was  settled, 
there  was  not  a  school-house  in  the  town  fit  for  its  purpose ; 
he  did  not  rest  until  he  skw  suitable  buildings  in  every 
school  district ;  and  it  was  the  task  of  renovating  the  schools 
of  this  town  that  prepared  him  for  his  larger  efficiency  in 
the  schools  of  the  State  and  the  general  cause  of  education. 
He  speedily  saw  the  necessity  of  giving  himself  to  the  cause 
of  Temperance,  and  his  example  aided  his  precept  to  com- 
mend the  duty  of  total  abstinence  from  all  intoxicating  drink. 
For  either  of  these  causes  he  was  ready  to  plead,  without 
fee  or  reward.  Nor  did  conservative  relationships  hinder 
him  from  taking  the  side  of  humanity  in  the  strifes  about 
slavery.  His  voice  was  prompt  and  clear  against  this  sin, 
when  the  voices  of  most  clergymen  were  either  silent  or  fee- 
ble in  deprecating  it.  He  was  not  ashamed  or  afraid  to  be 
called  an  "Abolitionist,"  and  to  urge  among  the  chief  of 
Christian  duties  the  duty  of  giving  liberty  to  the  captive. 
His  ardor  in  this  cause  brought  upon  him  some  reproaches, 
and  many  who  could  not  know  the  honesty  of  the  man  con- 

VOL.   V.   NO.   IV.  47 


55-4  REV.   AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE, 

dcmncd  what  they^Ialled  his  fanaticism.  He  never  repented 
of  his  zeal  in  this  direction,  nor  regretted  that  he  had  coun- 
selled  political  action  in  this  great  national  sin  ;  nor  did  un- 
generous attacks  in  the  public  prints  cause  him  to  swerve 
from  his  conscientious  purpose. 

Mr.  Pope  pursued  his  ministry  in  Kingston  as  if  he  in- 
tended to  stay  there  permanently,  and  was  never,  while  he 
remained,  a  candidate  for  any  more  conspicuous  place.  He 
was  an  owner  of  land  in  the  village,  and  he  had  built  a 
house.  He  might  hope  to  disprove  the  criticism  of  the  ven- 
erable ex-pastor,  whose  cautions  he  so  much  prized,  —  that 
a  minister's  house  in  Kingston  should  be  built  upon  wheels, 
and  be  ready  for  a  sudden  start  There  was  reason  in  this 
remark  of  Rev.  Zephaniah  Willis,  for  two  colleagues  had 
already  come  and  gone  since  he  retired  from  his  active 
duties.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  third  to  preach  the  funeral 
discourse  of  this  very  aged  minister.  An  attack  of  bron- 
chitis changed  Mr.  Pope's  plan,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
resign  his  place,  and  seek,  after  a  season  of  rest,  some  more 
limited  field  of  labor. 

In  the  year  1849  Mr.  Pope  commenced  his  ministry  in 
the  new  Unitarian  church  at  Somerville,  in  which  for  a 
short  period  Rev.  John  T.  Sargent  had  been  pastor.  His 
connection  with  this  church  was  dissolved  only  by  his  death. 
The  growth  of  the  society  was  as  rapid  as  could  have  been 
expected,  considering  the  population  of  the  town  and  the 
somewhat  inaccessible  position  of  the  church  building.  Mr. 
Pope  identified  himself  at  once  with  the  public  interests, 
and  very  soon  his  name  became  in  the  public  journals  in- 
separably associated  with  the  name  "Somerville."  The 
high  rank  that  this  town  holds  in  the  statistics  of  Massa- 
chusetts common  schools  is  mainly  due  to  his  exertions. 
During  most  of  the  time  he  was  Chairman,  and  always  was 


REV.  AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE.  555 

the  working  man,  of  the  School  Committee.  In  1855,  hav- 
ing received  an  appointment  as  Lecturer  of  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  he  was  allowed  a  year's  respite  from  his  pa- 
rochial duties,  the  society  being  unwilling  to  accept  his  ab- 
solute resignation.  The  year  was  busily  spent  by  him  in 
visiting  schools  in  all  sections  of  the  State,  in  familar  ad- 
dresses to  teachers,  in  public  lectures  on  schools  and  school- 
buildings,  and  in  attending  Teachers'  Institutes.  At  the 
expiration  of  the  year  he  returned  to  his  ministerial  work, 
varying  it  by  mechanical  inventions,  and  by  communications 
on  subjects  connected  with  agriculture.  The  roof  of  the 
new  building,  which  has  replaced  the  former  church  in 
Somerville  destroyed  by  fire,  is  of  a  peculiar  construction, 
designed  by  himself;  and  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  had 
completed  the  invention  of  an  alarm  against  burglars,  by 
very  ingenious  mechanism. 

In  the  early  part  of  May,  Mr.  Pope  became  conscious  of 
trouble  in  his  head,  which  increased  to  a  severe  pain,  and 
became  finally  a  case  of  malignant  typhoid  fever,  attended 
by  alternate  delirium  and  stupor,  and  great  prostration.  He 
lingered  in  this  state  for  many  days,  until,  on  the  morning  of 
the  24th,  death  came  to  end  his  suflferings.  His  funeral  was 
attended  by  a  numerous  crowd  of  friends  and  parishioners, 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  26th,  the  service  being  performed 
by  his  college  classmate.  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale,  and  his 
theological  classmate.  Rev.  John  F.  W.  Ware.  His  body 
was  interred  at  Mount  Auburn  Cemetery. 

Mr.  Pope  was  one  of  those  rare  men,  of  \yhom  it  may  be 
said  that  the  performance  is  more  than  the  promise.  He 
grew  steadily  in  the  respect  and  affection  of  all  who  knew 
him,  and  with  every  year  his  influence  widened  and  deep- 
ened. He  never  preached  so  well  as  in  the  last  year  of  his 
life.    The  better  part  of  his  nature  came  out  more  and  more, 


55G  RKV.   AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE. 

as  he  WHS  called  to  more  various  labors.  His  generous 
frankness,  bis  kindness  of  beart,  bis  simplicity  of  cbaracter 
and  habit,  his  large  trust  in  other  men,  which  in  some  in- 
stances resulted  in  his  own  injury,  his  cheerfulness  and 
hopefulness  and  firmness  under  misfortunes  and  afflictions, 
his  unselfish  readiness  to  work  for  others,  careless  of  his 
own  interest,  were  daily  more  conspicuous  and  charming. 
He  was  not  indifferent  to  the  good  opinion  of  the  world, — 
loved  to  have  friends  and  to  stand  well  with  them ;  yet  he 
bad  rather  give  than  receive  favors.  Frugal  in  diet,  and 
plain  in  dress,  he  was  ready  to  do  his  full  share  in  every 
benevolent  work,  —  to  give  time,  labor,  and  money,  to  the 
full  extent  of  his  ability.  He  was  never  in  the  possession 
of  large  means,  though  he  was  supposed  by  some  to  have 
inherited  an  ample  estate.  Money  he  did  not  value,  except 
as  the  means  of  use  and  of  doing  good. 

As  a  preacher,  Mr.  Pope  was  plain,  serious,  and  practi- 
cal. His  singular  fluency  in  the  use  of  words  gave  to  his 
style  the  appearance  of  diffuseness;  but  his  ideas  were 
clear,  and  no  one  could  mistake  his  opinions  or  his  inten- 
tion. He  rarely  dealt  with  speculative  or  abstruse  themes, 
and  made  no  pretension  to  theological  scholarship.  Though 
he  was  fond  of  religious  poetry,  and  loved  to  view  religion 
on  its  sentimental  side,  he  was  far  from  being  a  mere  sen- 
timentalist. His  mind  was  masculine  and  vigorous,  and 
worked  more  than  it  mused  or  dreamed.  The  tones  of  his 
voice  were  strong  and  rugged  as  the  lines  of  his  expressive 
face.  There  was  no  sign  of  levity  in  his  pulpit  manner, 
but  his  hearers  saw  that  he  was  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and 
that  he  believed  all  he  said.  It  was  this  earnestness  mainly 
which  gave  him  his  power  as  a  preacher  and  a  lecturer, 
and  made  him  so  generally  acceptable.  Many  have  been 
more  eloquent  in  voice  and  manner,  and  have    preached 


RET.   AUGUSTUS   R.   POPE.  557 

more  profound  and  finished  sermons,  but  no  man  in  our 
body  has  thrown  into  his  preaching  a  more  honest  purpose 
and  spirit.  He  spoke  always  "  right  on,"  striving  rather  to 
express  and  enforce  his  thought,  than  to  win  praise  for  the 
style  in  which  it  was  delivered. 

Mr.  Pope's  published  writings  are  mostly  confined  to  ser- 
mons and  lectures  on  education,  though  he  frequently  fur- 
nished articles  for  the  secular  and  religious  journals.  His 
pen  was  that  of  a  ready  writer,  yet  he  was  not  fond  of  the 
labor  of  composition,  but  preferred  the  exercise  of  an  active 
life,  or  the  skilful  use  of  mechanic's  tools.  He  was  wont  to 
say  that  his  choice  of  a  profession  had  "  spoiled  a  good  me- 
chanic to  make  an  indiflferent  minister  " ;  but  his  popularity 
and  efficiency  as  a  minister  did  not  justify  the  latter  half  of 
this  assertion.  The  affection  of  his  parishioners,  not  less  than 
the  growth  of  the  churches  under  his  charge,  was  the  witness 
of  his  pastoral  fidelity.  His  habitual  presence  in  the  Sunday 
school  told  how  carefully  he  watched  the  Christian  nurture 
of  children,  and  how  comprehensive  was  his  idea  of  a  minis- 
ter's duty.  Of  the  poor  and  the  sick  he  was  a  thoughtful 
friend ;  and  no  one  could  speak  to  mourners  with  more  feel- 
ing and  fervor  of  the  virtues  of  a  departed  dear  one,  or  bring 
with  more  sincerity  the  offerings  of  Christian  sympathy. 
His  nature  was  social,  and  he  could  not  bear  solitude ;  even 
the  tasks  of  study  were  helped  rather  than  hindered  by  the 
presence  of  friends  and  children.  He  loved  to  advise,  to 
assist,  to  direct,  to  work  where  others  were  working  with 
him,  rather  than  to  work  alone.  Especially  was  he  interest- 
ed in  young  men,  and  all  his  zeal  was  enlisted  to  save  this 
class  from  temptation,  to  help  them  in  their  struggles,  and  to 
attach  them  to  Christian  institutions.  He  was  always  wel- 
comed in  their  assemblies. 

Of  the  domestic  life  of  Mr.  Pope  we  may  not  speak,  ex- 

47* 


558        MEETINGS   OF   THE   EXEGUTIYE    COMMITTEE. 

cept  to  say  that  his  was  a  happy  home,  and  that  the  chief 
reaM>n  of  his  unwillingness  to  remain  as  lecturer  to  the 
Board  of  Education  was  that  he  was  compelled  to  be  so 
much  away  from  his  family.  He  leaves  a  widow  and  four 
children  to  lament  his  loss  to  them.  He  died  in  the  sore 
and  certain  hope  of  immortal  life,  without  fear  of  the  future, 
without  repining  at  God*s  appointment.  His  death  has  lefl 
a  vacancy  in  the  circle  of  his  classmates,  in  the  ranks  of  Ids 
profession,  and  in  the  community,  where  his  name  was 
widely  known  and  his  influence  more  widely  felt,  which  will 
not  soon  be  filled.  His  example  is  an  encouragement  to 
uny  who  hesitate  in  choosing  the  calling  in  which  he  served 
so  well,  and  who  fear  lest  their  powers  or  their  tastes  are 
not  fitted  to  so  great  a  work.  The  Christian  ministry  was 
with  him  in  the  beginning  a  doubtful  experiment ;  but  it  be- 
came in  the  end  a  true  success,  and  was  always  an  abound- 
ing joy. 


MEETINGS  OF  TPIE  EXECUTIVE- COMMITTEE. 

March  15,  1858.  —  Present  at  this  meeting,  Messrs. 
Lothrop,  Fairbanks,  Hale,  Whipple,  Clark,  Rogers,  Fear- 
ing, and  the  Secretary. 

The  subject  of  the  transfer  of  the  church  in  Lawrence, 
Kansas,  to  the  Unitarian  Society  there  worshipping,  was 
presented  to  the  Board.  The  desirableness  of  this  arrange- 
ment was  admitted  on  all  sides;  but  some  considerations, 
growing  out  of  the  condition  upon  which  subscriptions  for 
building  the  church  were  obtained,  complicated  the  trans- 
action. It  was  finally  voted  that  a  power  of  attorney  be 
sent  to  E.  B.  Whitman,  Esq.,  our  agent  in   Lawrence, 


MEETINGS    OF   THE   EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE.        559 

authoriziDg  him  to  convey  the  entire  property  to  the  So- 
ciety, in  consideration  of  the  payment  of  five  thousand 
dollars,  of  which  sum  three  thousand  dollars  shall  be  re- 
garded as  a  trust-fund  for  the  promotion  of  Liberal  Chris- 
tianity in  Kansas,  subscriptions  to  that  amount  having  been 
obtained  under  this  condition. 

The  Secretary  communicated  a  correspondence  with  Rev. 
William  H.  Channing,  of  Liverpool,  in  regard  to  the  pur- 
chase of  the  stereotype  plates  of  Channing's  Memoirs.  The 
subject  was  referred  to  the  Secretary,  with  instructions  to 
obtain  further  information  concerning  the  present  condition 
and  probable  \alue  of  these  plates. 

The  Secretary  submitted  a  plan  for  the  celebration  of  the 
thirty-third  anniversary  of  the  Association,  with  a  list  of 
topics  and  speakers.  A  discussion  followed  upon  the  best 
method  of  making  that  occasion  interesting  and  instructive, 
and  upon  the  kind  of  subjects  which  at  the  present  time 
most  urgently  claim  our  attention.  A  general  approval  of 
the  plan  submitted  was  expressed ;  and  the  whole  subject 
was  referred  to  a  special  committee,  consisting  of  the  Presi- 
dent, the  Secretary,  and  E.  P.  Whipple,  Esq. 

The  following  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted :  — 

^'Resolvedy  That  while  inadequate  resources  compel  the 
Board  to  terminate  the  relation  which  Mr.  George  G. 
Channing  has  sustained  to  it  during  the  past  year,  as  its 
Home  Missionary,  its  thanks  be  hereby  tendered  to  him, 
both  for  the  missionary  services  he  has  rendered  in  our 
churches,  and  for  the  valuable  assistance  he  has  bestowed  in 
the  office  of  the  Association." 

The  President  and  Secretary  reported  to  the  Board,  that 
they  both  had  attended  several  informal  meetings  in  Boston 
of  gentlemen  interested  in  the  condition  of  Antioch  College, 
and  that  the  position  of  the  finances  of  that  institution  was 


560        MEETINGS   OF  THE   EXECUTIYE   COMMITTEE. 

such  that  a  loan  to  it  of  two  thousand  dollars,  to  be  raised 
by  a  pledge  of  a  part  of  our  permanent  fund,  would  be  of 
important  service  to  the  College.  They  further  reported 
that  ample  security  would  be  given,  and  the  interest  and 
terms  of  repayment  to  the  Board  were  fully  explained.  A 
YOte  was  passed  authorizing  the  Treasurer  to  loan  our  fund 
to  the  extent  above  named. 

April  12,  1858.  —  Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Hale,  Fair- 
banks, Hedge,  Clark,  Alger,  Fearing,  Rogers,  and  the 
Secretary. 

The  Secretary  communicated  various  letters  from  those 
who  had  been  invited  to  speak  at  the  next  anniversary. 

The  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted :  — 

^^Hesolved,  That  this  Board  has  heard  with  deep  sorrow 
of  the  death  of  its  Missionary  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Bev. 
Joseph  C.  Smith,  soon  after  his  arrival  at  the  place  where, 
had  life  and  strength  been  given  him,  he  would  have  ren- 
dered, as  is  believed,  valuable  services  in  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tian truth  and  righteousness. 

^^  Resolved,  That  we  call  to  mind  with  affectionate  regard 
the  deep  interest  which  he  felt  in  the  object  of  his  mission, 
and  his  earnest  and  often-expressed  wish  that  he  might  ac- 
complish important  results  in  the  work  he  had  undertaken. 

^'Resolved,  That  we  regret  the  disappointment  which  our 
friends  in  Honolulu  will  feel  in  the  temporary  frustration  of 
their  hopes,  and  that  we  will  improve  the  first  opportunity 
in  our  power  of  sending  another  Missionary  to  that  place. 

^Resolved,  That  we  hereby  offer  expressions  of  our  sym- 
pathy and  condolence  to  the  wife  of  Mr.  Smith,  and  assure 
her  we  shall  ever  cherish  the  remembrance  of  his  manlj 
simplicity,  truthfulness,  and  consecration  to  the  cause  of  the 
Master  whom  he  served. 


MEETINGS   OP    THE   EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE.        561 

^^Resolvedy  That  having  heard  that  it  was  Mr.  Smith's 
request  that  the  money  advanced  to  him  by  the  Association 
should  be  repaid,  because,  as  he  said,  *  he  had  not  earned 
it,'  we  hereby  tender  the  same  to  Mrs.  Smith,  as  we  feel  it 
has  been  earned,  in  the  high  associations  which  the  name 
and  character  of  her  husband  have  given  to  our  first  mis- 
sionary attempt  at  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

^'Resolved,  That  copies  of  these  Resolutions  be  sent  to 
Mrs.  Joseph  C.  Smith,  and  to  Rev.  Edward  P.  Bond,  Sand- 
wich Islands." 

The  Secretary  stated  that  the  book  called  "  Seven  Stormy 
Sundays,"  ordered  to  be  printed,  had  been  published,  and 
copies  would  be  found  upon  the  table. 

m 

May  24,  1858.  —  Present,  Messrs.  Lothrop,  Hale,  Fair- 
banks, Whipple,  Alger,  Hedge,  Palfrey,  and  the  Secretary. 

The  Secretary  presented  the  paper  he  had  prepared  as 
the  Annual  Report  of  the  Board,  stating  that  he  had  also 
drawn  off  a  brief  synopsis  of  it,  which  he  thought  would  be 
sufficient  to  present  at  the  anniversary  meeting  to-morrow. 
The  Report  was  read  in  extenso  ;  it  was  voted  to  adopt  it 
as  the  Report  of  the  Board,  and  that  the  synopsis  be  left  in 
the  hands  of  the  Secretary  to  make  it  longer  or  shorter  as 
he  may  judge  best. 

A  few  appropriations  to  feeble  societies  were  voted,  and 
the  Board  adjourned  to  hold  its  final  meeting  to-morrow 
forenoon  at  the  church  in  Bedford  Street. 

May  31,  1858.  —  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  new  Board, 
elected  on  the  25th  instant,  for  the  year  1858  -  9,  there  were 
present  the  following  members :  —  Rev.  E.  B.  Hall,  D.  D., 
President ;  Rev.  Rufus  P.  Stebbins,  D.  D.,  Vice-President ; 
Rev.  Henry  A.  Miles,  D.  D.,  Secretary ;  Calvin  W.  Clark, 


562        MEETINGS    OP  THE    EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE. 

Esq.,  Treasurer;  Hon.  Henry  B.  Rogers;  Rev.  F.  H. 
Hedge,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  William  R.  Alger ;  E.  P.  Whipple, 
Esq. ;  Rev.  Calvin  Lincoln  ;  Rev.  Cazneau  Palfrey,  D.  D. 
The  Secretary  stated  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from 
Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar,  declining  the  appointment  as  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  Association,  and  member  of  this  Board,  as  his 
business  engagements  forbade  his  giving  his  time  to  the 
duties  of  these  stations. 

Hon.  Henry  B.  Rogers  was  elected  a  Vice-President  in 
the  place  of  Judge  Hoar.  Tlie  vacancy  in  the  Executive 
Committee  was  filled  by  the  unanimous  choice  of  Rev. 
Charles  Henry  Brigham,  of  Taunton. 

The  ^Standing  Committees  for  the  year  ensuing  were  then 
appointed  by  the  President,  as  follows ;  — 

On  Missions. 
Messrs.  Hall,  Stebbins,  Whipple,  Palfrey. 

On  Publications. 

Messrs.  Hedge,  Alger,  Lincoln,  Brigham,  Hosmer,  Bel- 
lows, Eliot. 

On  Business, 

Messrs.  Clark,  Rogers,  Whipple,  Brigham. 

The  Secretary  is  ex  officio  a  member  of  each  of  the 
above  Standing  Committees. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  session  was  devoted  to  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  present  condition  of  the  Association, 
its  finances,  debts,  investments,  publication  of  books,  appro- 
priations, and  method  of  keeping  accounts.  The  further 
consideration  of  this  matter  was  referred  to  the  Business 
Committee,  to  report  at  the  next  meeting. 

It  was  unanimously  voted  that  this  Board  no  longer  con- 
tinue the  arrangement  heretofore  existing  for  providing  for 
the  supply  of  pulpits. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS.  563 

The  Secretary  was  authorized  to  issue  an  extra  number 
of  copies  of  the  Report  and  Addresses  9,t  the  late  Annual 
Meeting. 

The  Secretary  suggested  a  plan  for  the  board  and  in- 
struction of  Philip  Gangooly,  and  was  authorized  to  make 
such  arrangements  as  he  might  deem  best. 

The  Secretary  was  directed  to  prepare  a  plan  of  District 
Agency,  like  that  adopted  in  former  years,  and  to  report 
the  same  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Board. 


NOTICES   OF  BOOKS. 


Church  and  Congregation :  a  Plea  for  their  Unity*     By  C.  A. 
Bartol.     Boston :  Ticknor  and  Fields.     1858. 

This  book  reopens  an  old  discussion.  In  taking  the  ground 
that  the  entire  body  of  Christian  worshippers  is  the  Church,  and 
that  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  a  means  of  Christian 
culture,  should  be  administered  to  all  the  assembly  who  may  de- 
sire to  partake  of  it,  Mr.  Bartol  defends  the  side  which,  so  far 
as  our  observation  extends,  has  had  the  most  zealous  advocates, 
and,  as  we  have  thought,  the  best  show  of  argument.  The  objec- 
tions urged  against  this  view  seem  to  us  to  arise  chiefly  from  a 
long  different  usage,  and  the  traditional  ways  of  thinking  and 
feeling  which  have  thus  become  imbedded  in  the  general  Chris- 
tian consciousness.  We  believe  that  one  unacquainted  with  all 
controversy  on  this  point  would  never  imagint,  after  a  perusal  only 
of  the  Gospel  account  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  that 
the  Master  intended  the  ordinance  as  a  line  of  division,  to  separate 
the  Christian  world  into  two  classes ;  and  equally  plain  is  it  that 
such  a  use  of  this  rite  was  wholly  foreign  to  the  belief  and  prac- 
tice of  the  primitive  Church.  We  are  not  saying  that  two  classes 
do  not  exist,  —  the  real  disciples  and  the  mere  nominal  disciples. 


564  NOTICES   OP  BOOKS.    • 

What  we  say  is,  that  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Jesus  pro- 
posed that  an  attempt  to  run  a  separating  lilie  between  them  should 
be  made  by  this  ordinance.  We  might  just  as  well  contend  that 
none  but  those  whom  we  judge  to  be  spiritually  born  again,  should 
join  in  the  prayers  of  the  Clmrch,  or  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures. 

A  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  the  Lord^s  Supper  is  instructive. 
The  reader  will  find  it  presented  in  those  admirable  tracts,  in  the 
old  series  of  the  American  Unitarian  Association,  which  were 
written  by  the  late  Dr.  F.  W.  P.  Greenwood,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Bar- 
rett, and  Rev.  Dr.  Dewey.  These  tracts  logically  cover  every 
position  taken  in  the  book  before  us.  The  ordinance  was  at  first 
administered  to  the  whole  body  of  worshippers,  this  being  the  Ec- 
clesia,  that  is,  the  Church.  For  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Church  and  congregation  did  not  exist  in 
primitive  times.  All  who  came  together  for  public  worship  com- 
posed the  Church,  and  to  all  were  the  elements  of  the  Supper  i 
distributed.  But  afler  a  few  generations  a  desire  sprung  up  to 
draw  a  line  between  those  who  had  attained  to  a  knowledge  of 
salvation,  and  those  who  were  yet  ignorant  on  this  point.  As  we 
have  intimated,  anything  else  might  as  well  have  been  proposed, 
as  a  test,  as  the  ordinance  in  question.  But  the  Eucharist  hap- 
pened to  be  chosen  for  this  object.  The  ceremony  was  conducted 
in  a  room  separated  from  the  body  of  worshippers.  None  but  srf 
examined  and  approved  few  were  admitted.  Associations  of  aw- 
ful mystery  were  cast  about  it.  These  prepared  the  way  for  the 
stupendous  imposition  of  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation,  —  that 
the  bread  is  the  identical  body,  and  the  wine  the  identical  blood, 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  interesting  history  of  the  first  communioo 
celebrated  by  the  Reformers  under  Luther,  shows  by  what  a  pro- 
found spirit- struggle  was  taken  the  first  step  back  from  the  cor- 
ruptions of  ages ;  another  step  towards  primitive  usage  remains 
to  be  taken,  and  the  tolerance  and  culture  of  our  times  will  make 
this  easier  than  the  first. 

We  have  no  idea  that  this  step  will  at  once  be  very  generally 
taken.  On  no  subject  are  people  in  general  so  conservative  as  in 
matters  of  ecclesiastical  usage.     Nor  do  we  forget  that,  in  some 


NOTICES   OP  BOOKS.  565 

sucieties,  ways  of  thinking  may  exist  in  which  a  proposition  to 
abolish  the  distinction  between  Church  and  congregation  might  do 
infinite  mischief.  The  reform  is  complicated  and  fettered  by  usa- 
ges and  traditional  feelings  which  are  to  be  treated  with  the  ut- 
most respect.  Each  clergyman  must  act  for  himself.  What  may 
be  good  in  one  case,  may  not  be  in  another.  There  must  be  no 
disposition  to  dictate  or  dogmatize.  Falling  into  this  questioning, 
doubting,  and  varying  state  of  the  churches,  we  believe  Mr.  Bar- 
tol's  book  will  have  a  ministry  for  good.  We  believe  it  looks  in 
the  right  direction.  It  is  eminently  conservative  of  the  ordinance 
of  the  Supper.  It  invests  that  holy  commemoration  with  the  most 
reverential  and  affecting  associations.  It  is  a  prophetic  book.  We 
feel  sure  that  for  the  next  hundred  years  the  freest  and  freshest  and 
profoundest  Christian  believers  will  in  larger  and  larger  numbers 
sympathize  with  its  conclusions.  It  is  a  book  of  poetry,  and  out 
of  our  temporary  discords  its  author  has  made  music  which  will 
long  linger  on  the  air.  If  any  of  us  have  felt  the  want  of  more 
clear,'  logical  statements,  we  must  not  forget  that,  as  the  fluids  of 
the  earth  are,  as  geologists  tell  us,  more  constant  in  their  position 
than  the  hills,  which,  if  never  overthrown  by  volcanic  violence,  are 
constantly  abraded  by  rains  and  frosts,  so  the  flowing  sentiments 
and  affections  of  our  nature  are  more  enduring  than  all  our  seem- 
ingly lofty  and  solid  arguments.  This  is  a  book  of  sentiment  and 
affection,  and  it  will  take  a  permanent  place  in  our  literature. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  add,  that  we  have  no  sympathy  with 
remarks  sometimes  made,  not  in  the  book  before  us,  but  in  discus- 
sions on  its  general  topic,  implying  that  the  proposition  is  to  give 
up  the  Church.  No,  we  say  in  reply,  this  is  not  the  proposition. 
The  Church  established  by  Jesus  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
truth,  and  the  gates  of  the  grave  shall  never  prevail  against  it. 
Handed  down  through  so  many  past  generations,  it  is  to  go  on 
through  generations  to  come,  enlightening  and  blessing  the  world  ; 
and  we  might  as  well  talk  of  giving  up  any  other  mighty  and  ev- 
erlasting boon  of  God's  grace  as  this.  It  may  give  us  up,  and 
will,  if  we  are  not  faithful  to  it ;  but  for  us  to  give  that  up  is  im- 
possible, for  it  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever.  But  the  real  question 
is,  Who  compose  this  Church?     And  if  we  insist  that  the  distinc- 

VOL.    V.    NO.   IV.  48 


• 


566     RECORD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENOE. 

lion  of  eating  and  drinking  in  the  Lord's  Supper  was  not  intended 
t^  separate  a  part  of  the  congregation  from  the  rest,  and  therefore 
proceed  to  abolish  it  and  make  the  whole  congregation  the  Church, 
all  the  more  are  we  bound  to  try  to  make  that  whole  congregation 
church-like,  by  causing  it  to  bear  those  fruits  of  the  Spirit  which 
should  mark  a  veritable  branch  of  the  true  Vine.     Organized  on  a 
mere  distinction  of  eating  and  drinking  bread  and  wine,  the  Church 
is  organized  on  a  narrow  basis ;  this  is  ritualistic,  Judaistic,  un- 
christian in  the  sense  of  not  having  the  largeness  of  view  belong- 
ing to  Christ.     Let  the  Church  be  organized  on  activity  in  doing 
good,  in  remembering  the  poor,  in  helping  the  enslaved,  in  refortn- 
ing  the  sinful.     A  whole  congregation  active  in  these  blessed  char- 
ities would  be  a  Church,  a  true  and  living  Church.     Without  such 
fruits,  no  mere  eating  and  drinking  in  remembrance  of  Christ  can 
prove  any  collection  of  men  and  women  a  member  of  his  body. 

%*  In  consequence  of  the  length  of  the  account  of  the  Thirty- 
third  Anniversary,  other  book-notices  prepared  for  this  number  are 
necessarily  deferred. 


RECORD  OF  EVENTS  AND  GENERAL   INTEL- 
LIGENCE. 

March  3,  1858.  —  The  New  Chapel  built  for  the  Second  Uni- 
tarian Society,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  was  dedicated  to  the  uses  of  pub- 
lic worship.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  the  pastor.  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Longfellow. 


March  3,  1858.  —  Mr.  George  Freeman  Noyes,  a  graduate  of 
the  Cambridge  Divinity  School,  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Unita- 
rian Society  in  Chicago,  Illinois.  The  sermon  was  preached  by 
Rev.  William  G.  ;^liot,  D.  D.,  of  St.  Louis. 


March  28,  1858.  —  A  sermon,  commemorative  of  the  life  and 
character  of  Rev.  Joseph  C.  Smith,  was  preached  in  the  Channing 


BECOBD  OF  EVENTS  AND  OENEBAL  INTELLIGENCE.    567 

Church  in  NewtOD,  by  th^  Secretary  of  the  Association,  at  the 
request  of  some  of  the  late  parishioners  of  the  deceased.  Mr. 
Smith  died  in  Honolulu,  December  29,  1857. 

March  30,  1858.  —  Rev.  J.  K.  Karcher  was  installed  pastor  of 
the  Lee  Street  Unitarian  Society,  in  Lowell.  Sermon  by  Rev. 
Edward  E.  Hale  of  Boston. 


April  8,  1858.  —  The  Thursday  Lecture,  which  has  been  sus- 
pended for  several  years,  was  this  day  recommenced,  under  the 
care  of  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Boston,  Rev.  Rufus  Ellis, 
who  preached  an  appropriate  discourse  on  the  revival  of  this  an- 
cient service. 


April  21,  1858.  —  Rev.  Luther  Bailey  was  installed  pastor  of 
the  Unitarian  Society  in  West  Bridgewater.  Sermon  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Stebbins  of  Woburn. 


April  25,  1858.  —  Rev.  John  M.  Marsters  was  installed  pastor 
of  the  Unitarian  Society  in  Allen  Street,  North  Cambridge.  Ser- 
mon by  Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  of  Boston. 


May  24,  1858.  —  Rev.  Augustus  Russell  Pope  died  at  Somer- 
ville,  where  he  had  been  for  years  settled  as  pastor  of  the  Unita- 
rian Society  in  that  place.  Our  readers  will  find  on  another  page 
of  this  Journal  a  sketch  of  the  life  and  character  of  this  energetic 
and  useful  minister. 


May  25,  26,  27,  1858.  — These  days  were  marked  by  the  cus- 
tomary celebrations  of  "  Anniversary  Week."  Of  the  meeting  of 
the  American  Unitarian  Association  we  have  already  given  a  full 
account  The  Festival  at  Faneuil  Hall  was  regarded  as  an  un- 
usually brilliant  success.  Hon.  Judge  Thomas,  of  Worcester,  pre- 
sided with  great  dignity  and  spirit ;  and  interesting  speeches  were 
made  by  Rev.  Henry  F.  Harrington,  Rev.  T.  S.  King,  Rev.  A. 
D.  Mayo,  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  Rev.  Dr.  Lolhrop,  Charles  Hale, 
Esq.,  and  others.  The  Address  to  the  Ministerial  Conference  was 
delivered  by  Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham  of  New  Jersey.  The  celebra- 


568     RECORD  OF  EYEKTS  AND  GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE. 

tion  of  the  Sunday  School  Society  was  largely  attended,  and  an  in- 
teresting report,  and  pertinent  and  well-toned  speeches,  made  the 
occasion  one  that  will  long  be  remembered.  The  morning  prayer- 
meeiings  were  crowded  through  the  week,  and  a  tone  of  deep 
fechng  pervaded  them.  A  Convention  Sermon  of  extraordinary 
boldness  and  ability  was  preached  on  Thursday  by  Rev.  George 
E.  Ellis,  D.  D.,  who  selected  for  his  subject  the  Reaction  of  a  Re- 
vival vpon  Religion,  and  showed  how,  at  revivals,  there  is  a 
growth  of  a  third  party  standing  between  the  Church  and  the 
world.  The  holy  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  adminis- 
tered on  Thursday  evening  by  Rev.  Mr.  Tilden  of  Fitchburg.  So 
ended  a  week  of  unusual  satisfaction  and  profit.  We  felt  confident 
at  its  close  that  a  more  fraternal  spirit  was  pervading  our  body,  and 
that  amid  some  varieties  of  speculation  and  feeling  we  were  all  de- 
termined to  do  more  to  sustain  the  Church  which  has  for  its  rally- 
ing cry  the  grand  old  words  of  Freedom  and  Progress. 


*^*  As  the  annual  meetings  of  most  of  our  parishes  are  held  in 
the  spring,  and  usually  about  the  first  of  April,  it  happens  that  we 
have  always  a  large  number  of  clerical  changes  to  chronicle  at  this 
time.  During  the  last  quarter  we  have  heard  of  the  following:  — 
Rev.  Dr.  Barrett,  after  a  ministry  of  more  than  thirty  years,  marked 
by  rare  peace  and  union,  has  asked  for  a  colleague,  to  whom  he 
proposes  to  relinquish  all  professional  labors.  Rev.  Christopher 
T.  Thayer  of  Beverly  has  resigned  his  charge  of  the  Unitarian 
Society  in  that  place.  Rev.  Frederic  A.  Whitney  has  withdrawn 
from  the  care  of  the  Unitarian  Society  in  Brighton.  Rev.  Grin- 
dall  Reynolds  has  resigned  his  charge  of  the  Society  at  Jamaica 
Plain.  Rev.  Mr.  Sears  has  relinquished  the  pastoral  care  of  the 
Society  in  Wayland.  We  understand,  also,  that  the  following 
persons  have  closed  their  connection  with  the  societies  in  the  towns 
placed  against  their  names :  —  Rev.  Mr.  Waite,  Fall  River ;  Rev. 
Mr.  Gage,  Manchester,  N.H. ;  Rev.  Mr.  Knapp,  Stirling ;  Rev. 
Mr.  Laihrop,  Walpole,  N.  H.  Meanwhile  we  hear  of  several 
new  connections  between  pastor  and  people,  some  of  which  we 
shall  report  in  our  next  number. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


569 


%*  We  are  pleased  to  hear  of  the  very  prosperous  growth  of 
the  Society  in  Milwaukie,  Wisconsin,  under  the  care  of  our  es- 
teemed brother  Staples.  The  Society  has  nearly  doubled  its  num- 
bers and  resources  within  the  year  past,  and  during  the  summer 
its  house  of  worship  is  to  be  considerably  enlarged. 


%*  Plans  are  maturing  for  the  establishment  of  a  new  society 
in  Chicago,  Illinois  ;  and  we  believe  that,  upon  the  revival  of  busi- 
ness, attempts  will  at  once  be  made  to  secure  this  result.  The 
encouragements  are  so  great  as  to  leave  no  reasonable  doubt  of 
immediate  and  marked  success. 


*4it*  The  new  Unitarian  Society  at  the  South  End,  in  Boston,  is 
adopting  measures  to  erect  at  once  a  large  and  attractive  church 
in  Newton  Street. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


In  the  months  of  March,  April,  and  May  the  following  sums 
were  received:  — 


March 


1. 

2. 


(( 


5. 

6. 

9. 

10. 

(( 

<( 

15. 

11 

17. 

(( 

(( 


(< 


(< 


(i 


(i 


From  Society  in  Med  ford,  ...  I 
Rev.  Dr.  Newell's  Society,  Cambridge, 
a  Friend,  to  purchase  "  Homeward  Path" 

for  distribution, 
Rev.  William  Morse,  to  balance  his  ac 
count,  for  books  sold  by  him, 
Books  sold  in  Barre, 

"       *»     by  H.  Hiatt, 
From  James  Fowler, 
Quarterly  Journals  in  Northboro', 
Books  sold  in  Lynn, 
From  Society  in  Petersham, 
Books  sold  inExeter,  N.  H.,    . 

**       **     by  A.  Hutchinson,     . 
From  Society  in  Petersham,  in  addition, 
Quarterly  Journals  in  Barre, 
Books  sold  at  Newton  Corner,  in  addition, 
From  Society  in  Fitchburg, 


40.72 
70.00 

5.00 

54.50 

3.16 

12.92 

6.00 

16.00 

36.87 

19.00 

1.00 

8.00 

7.00 

42.00 

13.26 

64.00 


570 


AOKKOWLEDGMENTS. 


March 

17. 

(t 

ti 

t( 

18. 

i( 

25. 

iC 

2G. 

(( 

27. 

t( 

28. 

(( 

30. 

i( 

31. 

(( 

it 

April 

2. 

<t 

4. 

(t 

it 

ti 

ii 

i( 

6. 

(i 

t( 

ti 

7. 

t( 

ti 

t( 

8. 

i( 

ft 

(( 

9. 

t( 

12. 

(( 

ti 

i( 

ti 

i( 

it 

(( 

14. 

(( 

16. 

i( 

it 

(( 

ii 

n 

11 

it 

Ii 

ii 

17. 

it 

20. 

ti 

21. 

i  t 

22. 

ii 

a 


23. 


it 

(i 

if 

28. 

it 

(i 

ft 

ti 

it 
tc 
it 
ti 
it 
it 


From  Society  in  Nortbfield,      .         .        .     $20.00 
**  "       "  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  .         .     50.00 

**      Third  Society,  Dorchester,      .        .         18.00 
Quarterly  Journals  in  Pepperell,  .         .      7.00 

From  Society  in  Way  land,       .         .         .         17.00 
'*      Second  Church,  Boston,      .         .         .  346.96 
Books  sold  by  Rev.  A.  Hill,  D.  D.,  .  9.07 

From  Society  in  West  Dedham,   .         .         .     10.00 
Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  March,         .         .         88.95 
From  Subscribers  to  Quarterly  Journal,        .    29.00 
Books  sold  by  Mrs.  George  F.  Allen,        .         19.80 
From  Society  in  Saco,  Me.,  .         .         .     33.00 

From  Rev.  Dr.  NewelPs  Society,  in  addition,      2.00 
Books  sold  in  Fairhaven,  Mass.,  .         .       8.37 

From  Rev.  W.  H.  Cud  worth,  to  balance  ac- 
count, ...... 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Leominster,    . 

"  **         **  Bridge  water, 

From  Society  in  New  Bedford,  Mass., 

a  Friend,  for  India  Mission, 

Society  in  Saco,  Me.,  in  addition,    . 

J.  H.  Foster,  for  Quarterly  Journals, 

Society  in  Watertown,  . 

Rev.  I.  Nichols,  D.  D.,  for  India  Mission,  10.00 

"         <*  **       *«  Book  Fund,      10.00 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Providence,  R.  I., 

Books  sold  in  South  Portsmouth,  R.  I.,     . 

From  a  Friend,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Newell,  for  Book 

Fund,  $  10  ;  —  for  General  Purposes,  $  10, 

From  Society  in  Belfast,  Me., 

"  "       '*    Charlestown,  N.  H., 

"      C.  Spaulding,  to  balance  account, 

Books  sold  by  Rev.  William  Morse, 

From  Newton  Corner  Sunday  School,  for  books,   7.55 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Mansfield,        .         .  7.00 

From  a  Friend,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Newell,  for  India 

Mission, 

Q*iarterly  Journals  in  Dublin,  N.  H.,     . 
From  Society  in  Milton,  for  Meadville  Theo- 
logical School,         ..... 
From  Rev.  Samuel  Osgood,  D.  D.,  to  balance 
account,  for  books,  .... 

Quarterly  Journals  in  Brookfield, 
From  Mrs.   N.  F.   Williams,  Jr.,  for  India 

Mission,      ..... 

From  Society  in  Saco,  Me.,  in  addition, 

"        "  Bath,  Me.,      . 


4.54 

25.00 

23.00 

169.50 

2.00 

2.00 

3.37 

59.50 


57.00 
3.00 

20.00 

48.00 

5.00 

3.25 

71.42 


«t 


10.00 
11.00 

97.08 

.33.57 
22.00 

10.00 
9.00 
3.00 


AOKNOWLEDGMEKTS.  571 

April    29.  From  Ladies  of  New  North  Society,  Boston,  $42.00 
30.  Books  sold  at  Rooms,  in  April,         .         .       101.21 
From  Subscribers  to  Quarterly  Journal,        .     26.00 
May       1.  A.  Story,  Esq.,  to  make  himself  a  Life-mem- 
ber,          30.00 

"         **  From  Friends  in  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,          12. OQ 

**         **  Quarterly  Journals  in  Calais,  Me.,        .         .     13.00 

**         **  "              '*       **  Flemington,  N.  J.,            4.00 

**        **  "               **        "  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,    3.00 

"         4.  From  Federal  Street  Society,  Boston,       .       640.00 

**         5.  "     John  Bartlett,  for  books,      .         .         .       8.87 

7.  Quarterly  Journals  in  Stirling,  .         .        35.00 

8.  From  Miss  M.  Newman,  for  India  Mission,  .  5.00 
"  11.  '*  A.  Whittemore  &  Co.,  for  books,  .  1.30 
**  "  **  Society  in  Lancaster,  Mass.,  .  .  65.00 
"  *'  *«  "  "  Wayland,  in  addition,  .  1.00 
"         **  From  Seth  Adams,  Esq.,  to  make  Rev.  Tlios. 

Dawes  a  Life-member,  .  .  .  30.00 
"  "  From  A.  B.  Taliaferro,  of  Virginia,  .  .  20.00 
"  "  Books  sold  in  Marblehead,  .  .  .  38.46 
"  "  From  Rev.  Edward  P.  Bond,  for  books,  .  14.02 
"  "  "  **  F.  Huidekoper,  for  books,  .  100.80 
"  15.  "  Buffalo  Sunday  School,  for  India  Mission,  10.25 
*'  "  "  Society  in  Chicago,  111.,  .  .  100.00 
**  "  Books  sold  in  New  Bedford,  .  .  .  20.8S 
"  17.  From  Society  in  Dover,  Mass.,  .  .  7.00 
*  *  "  "  Rev.  Ralph  Sanger,  D.  D.,  for  India  Mis- 
sion,    10.00 

"       18.     From  Society  in  Taunton,  ....  100.00 
**         '*         "  *'       "  Brookline,      .         .         .        90.00 

**         **         "      George  A.  Nourse,  for  books,     .         .     22.00 
"       19.        "      Rev.  J.  Caldwell,  "  .  1.05 

**         **         "      Society  in  Belfast,  Me.,  in  addition,    .       1.00 
"         "      Interest  on  Graham  Fund,        .         .         .       327.25 
**       20.     From  A.  B.  Boylston,  second  payment  on  Life- 
membership,  .         .         .         .  6.00 
From  Society  in  Exeter,  N.  H.,           .         .     12.00 
Quarterly  Journals  in  Boston,  .         .         .         90.00 

21.  From  C.  F.  Davis,  as  second  payment  on  Life- 
membership,        6.00 

From  a  Friend,  to  purchase  "  Homeward  Path" 

for  distribution, 10.00 

22.  Books  sold  in  Littleton,  Mass.,     .         .         .1.45 
From  Society  in  Keene,  N.  H.,  for  Book 

Fund,  in  addition, 10.00 

From  Society  in  Eastport,  Me.,  to  be  appro- 
priated to  Society  in  Perry,      .         .         .46.00 


((  (( 


572  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

May    21.     From  a  Friend,  to  purchase  books  for  India,   $10.00 
**         **         **     Providenco,  H.  I.,  in  addition,      .         .       1.00 
**         **     Rev.  II.  F.  Harrington,  .         .  1.00 

♦«         **     Society  in  Beverly,     .         .         .         .85  00 

25.         **  "      **   Lexinjrton,       .         .         .         33.10 

*'         ♦*         **     Second  Society,  Portland,  Me.,    .         .     30.00 
**         »<         **     Rev.  Dr.  Hill's  Society,  AVorcester,         53.00 
**         "      Quarterly  Journals  in  Lowell,      .         .         .     78.00 
**         **     From  Mrs.  1.  Scripture,  towards  Life-mem- 
bership, ......      6.00 

^<         **      Books  sold  by  Miss  Anderson,  .         .  3.85 

»»         "  "       *<     in  Littleton,        .         .         .         '     20.00 

"         **      From  the  **  La<lies'  Benevolent  Circle,"  Lit- 
tleton, to  make  Rev.  £.  De  Normandie  a 
Life-member,       .....         30.00 

"       20.     From  Ilawes  Place  Society,  South  Boston,        71.00 
**         "         '*      Society  in  Framingham,  .         .        40.00 

**         **         **     J.  K.   Smith,  third  payment  towards 

Life-membership,         ....  6.00 

From  Second  Society,  Dorchester,        .        .     10.00 
Petersham  Society,  in  addition,        .  3.00 

"         ♦*      Books  sold  in  Fall  River 54.00 

"  '*  "  "  by  Rev.  John  Pierpont,  Jr.,  .  39.00 
*«  *«  '*  **  "  Seth  Chandler,  .  .  1.00 
*•       27.     From  Rev.  Theodore  H.  Dorr,  .         .  1.00 

28.     Quarterly  Journals  in  Stowe,        .         .         .      4.00 
Books  sold  in  Grafton,      ....         11.17 
**         «*         *»    by  Rev.  A.  A.  Livermore,  .    27.74 

"         ♦»         "         **    by  Rev.  Milton  Clark,     .         .  8.00 

**  29.  From  a  Friend,  for  Kansas  Mission,  .  .  15.00 
**       31.     Books  sold  at  Rooms  in  May,  .         .         95.47 

**         "      From  Subscribers  to  Quarterly  Journal,        .     19.00' 
*'         »'         "     Rev.  Mr.  Whitney's  Society,  Brighton,  100.00 


it         t( 

((         t(         i( 


ii 

i(         (( 


^'N    'V'X.' 


e  following  works  are  for  sale  at  tlie  Rooms  of  the 
•ican  Unitarian  Association,  21  Bromfield  Street :  — 

s  of  the  A.  U.  A.  complete.     26  vols.   .         .    $  12.00 

riing's  Works.     3  vols 2.00 

ning's  Memoirs.     3  vols 1.50 

3ir  of  Mrs.  Ware.  A.  U.  A.  Edition.  .  .  .70 
itli  Leisure.     By  Dr.  Beard.         .         .         .  .80 

and  Duty.  Sermons  by  J.  J.  Tayler.  .  .  .30 
's  Regeneration.     5th  Edition.       .         .         .  .36 

s  Doctrinal  Lectures.  12th  Thousand.  .  .  .25 
jlai-p  and  the  Cross .60 

Piety.     2d  Edition 16 

's  Christian  Character.         ....  .25 

riing's  Thoughts.  Selected  by  H.  A.  IVIiles.  .  .20 
•n's  Unitarian  Principles  confirmed.     2d  Edition.  1.00 

n's  Statement  of  Reasons 1.00 

ogical  Essays.     Noyes's  Collection.     2d  Edition.  1.00 

Rod  and  the  Staff.     2d  Edition 60 

tian  Doctrine  of  Prayer.  By  J.  F.  Clarke.  .  .50 
1  Stormy  Sundays .60 

News.     By  N.  Worcester. 36 

?1  Narratives.  By  II.  A.  Miles.  9th  Thousand.  .25 
►n's  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels.  3  vols.  .  4.00 
lasia,  or  Forejrloams  of  Immortality.  .         .       .60 

es  of  Christianity.     By  Prof.  Martineau.       .         1.00 

IS  of  Gold.     From  C.  A.  Bartol 20 

Mtor  at  Home.     8th  Edition.        ...  .50 

ning.     Select  Volume 60 

ry  of  the  Cross.     By  Wm.  R.  Alger.    .         .  .15 

•vations  on  the  Bible 30 

ion  of  the  English  Bible.  By  Dr.  Beard.  .  1.00 
Discipline  of  Sorrow.     By  Dr.  Eliot.     3d  Edition.  .30 

ly-School  Liturgy.     2d  Edition 25 

le's  Bible  Dictionaiy.  By  Dr.  Beard.  2  vols.  3.00 
lids  and  Objects  of  Religious  Knowledge.  2  vols.  1.50 
rations  of  the  Trinity 1.00 


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